Tag: "fungus" at biology news

Scientists discuss improved biopesticides for locust control in West Africa

...s registered for use in West Africa derives from a fungus that is a specific pathogen of locusts and grasshoppers. It specifically targets those insects and does not affect non-target organisms," Vaughan said. "The persistence of base biopesticides is low in the environment because of degradation from sunl...

Advances in the characterisation of the oyster mushroom genes

... responsible for this activity ?the reason why the fungus is sometimes used as a decontaminating agent, was the aim of the PhD thesis by Arantza Eizmendi Goikoetxea, which she defended at the Public University of Navarre with the title, Molecular Characterisation of a family of genes of cellobiohydrolases i...

Light therapy may combat fungal infections, new evidence suggests

... newly discovered mechanism by which an infectious fungus perceives light also plays an important role in it...ed the research. The potentially life-threatening fungus C. neoformans invades the central nervous system to cause disease, most commonly in patients who lac...

Researchers uncover sequence of major rice pathogen

...destructive enemy of rice: Magnaporthe grisea, the fungus that causes rice blast disease. Dr. Ralph Dean, p...s shed some light on the adaptations required by a fungus to cause disease. The researchers identify novel receptors that allow the fungus to recognize its en...

Discovery may lead to better Candidiasis drug

...iva, kills the oral pathogen Candida albicans, the fungus responsible for most HIV-related oral infections. ...n flow through the cell membrane of the pathogenic fungus Candida albicans and allows the cell to regulate its volume. The binding action of histatin acts li...

Defenseless plants arm themselves with metals

...cations - governs this pathway. When faced with a fungus or bacteria, most plants turn up their production of salicylic acid, which then interacts with other molecules in the plant, eventually turning on the genes that produce the proteins involved in fighting infection. These infection-fighting proteins a...

Same-Sex Mating Discovered in a Toxic Fungus

An infectious fungus has been found to defy the most basic tenet of sex..., the researchers reported that, in the infectious fungus Cryptococcus neoformans, members of the same "sex" can mate and produce offspring. Infection with th...

Experiment station researchers to explore genome of disease-fighting fungus

...ll soon begin genome sequencing a disease-fighting fungus used to protect crops, which has implications for ...y they will be able to develop new versions of the fungus to protect field crops from diseases. This would decrease the amount of pesticide and other chemical...

Fungus Effective Against Winged Termites

...Research Unit--have discovered a new strain of the fungus Metarhizium anisopliae that is highly effective ag...in 24 hours. The culprit? A velvety, light-colored fungus overrunning the termites' bodies. While a strain of Metarhizium has already been commercialized for...

Alien woodwasp, threat to US pine trees, found in N.Y.

...by introducing a toxic mucus and spores of a toxic fungus when the female lays her eggs through the bark and into the sapwood of the tree. "If S. noctilio is found to be established in New York or elsewhere in the U.S., we could launch a rapid response to contain and control the infestation," says Hoebeke....

Program finds lost genes in nematode genome

...mals, other nematode species and most recently the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans. Brent's approach to gene prediction stands traditional genome annotation on its head because it starts with a computer analysis of the genome sequence, using that as a hypothesis designing experiments to test the hypothesis. ...

Fungus-farming termites descend from an African rain forest Eve

...lationship between the termites and the cultivated fungus represents an impressive example of mutualistic sy... material, such as wood and dry grass, to feed the fungus and allow it to flourish, while the fungus converts otherwise indigestible plant material into nutri...

UF researchers kill resistant bugs one bandage at a time

...bs fluid, it forms a great avenue for bacteria and fungus to grow. This treatment actually makes the gauze absorb a little more fluid, (but) it'll keep the wound cleaner because it will keep the bacteria from getting back into the wound." Clinical trials of the coating in gauze will be conducted at UF late...

Bleach found to neutralize mold allergens

...g to Dr. Martyny. The researchers grew the common fungus Aspergillus fumigatus on building materials for two weeks, and then sprayed some with a dilute household bleach solution (1:16 bleach to water), some with Tilex?Mold & Mildew Remover, a cleaning product containing both bleach and detergent, and o...

Digging in the dirt for life's biochemical foundations

It seems a mighty feat for a microscopic fungus built from threadlike filaments. But collectively,...rkers and then watched as it traveled from soil to fungus to plant roots. Many had assumed that the fungus would play a modest role. The team found, however,...

Secret sex life of killer fungus?

...lergy, and it is implicated in asthma as well. The fungus has always been thought to lack the ability to rep...ultinational group of scientists indicate that the fungus has a number of characteristics of sex. The possible presence of sex in the species is highly signif...

Purdue researchers find key to rice blast fungus

Efforts to halt a fungus that deprives about 60 million people a year of fo... as 75 percent in infected areas. Learning how the fungus tricks rice's natural defenses against pathogens to penetrate the plant is an important part of cont...

Scientists develop fungus-fighting vaccine

... beta-glucan that is found on the cell wall of the fungus and that the fungus needs to grow and survive. To induce a robust immune response to the vaccine, the group attached the...

Pillows - a hot bed of fungal spores

... samples and identified several thousand spores of fungus per gram of used pillow - more than a million spor...mbers found in synthetic pillows. The microscopic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus was particularly evident in synthetic pillows, and fungi as diverse as bread a...

Lethal needle blight epidemic may be related to climate change

... blame for the outbreak. The blight, caused by the fungus Dothistroma septosporum, causes trees to lose their needles and, in the case of the British Columbia outbreak, eventually die. D. septosporum has long been recognized as a pathogen of pines, but although it is considered a serious disease of exotic p...

1 2 3