Penn State entomologists seek fungus to blunt mosquitoes' sense of smell

Sick people often lose their sense of smell and their appetite. If this happened to mosquitoes, they would not be able to feed on humans and spread malaria. A team of Penn State entomologists is looking for an insect disease that will infect mosquitoes and impair their sense of smell. Supported ...

Food security for leaf-cutting ants: Workers and their fungus garden reject endophyte invaders

New diseases directly affect human survival and food security, especially as population density climbs. Leaf-cutting ants, one of a few groups of social insects to cultivate crops, have harvested plant material to fertilize their underground fungal gardens for ~50 million years. New results from t...

Genome sequencing of fungus with biotechnological applications

Researchers Antonio G. Pisabarro (Professor of Microbiology) as well as Jos Luis Lavn and Jos Antonio Oguiza, from the Genetic and Microbiology Group at the Public University of Navarre, have taken part in the international project for the sequencing of the genome of the Postia placenta fungus. ...

Scientists discover how deadly fungus protects itself

February 3, 2009 (Bronx, NY) Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered how a deadly microbe evades the human immune system and causes disease. The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( PNAS ), may h...

Researchers to use K-State's BSL-3 Lab for $1 million study of fungus threatening wheat crops

MANHATTAN -- Kansas is lucky that a devastating wheat fungus isn't threatening the state's crops yet. Researchers at Kansas State University are getting $1 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to keep it that way. Barbara Valent, university distinguished professor of plant pathology,...

Obscure fungus produces diesel fuel components

A wild fungus has been found to produce a variety of hydrocarbon components of diesel fuel. The harmless, microscopic fungus, known as Gliocladium roseum (NRRL 50073), lives quietly within ulmo trees in the Patagonian rainforest. Gary Strobel of Montana State University has found that the fu...

Novel fungus helps beetles to digest hard wood

University Park, Pa. -- A little known fungus tucked away in the gut of Asian longhorned beetles helps the insect munch through the hardest of woods according to a team of entomologists and biochemists. Researchers say the discovery could lead to innovative methods of controlling the invasive pest...

Tree-killing fungus officially named by scientists

Asheville, NC The USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) today announced that an SRS scientist and other researchers have officially named the fungus responsible for killing redbay and other trees in the coastal plains of northeastern Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Lead a...

Turning fungus into fuel

LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico, May 4, 2008A spidery fungus with a voracious appetite for military uniforms and canvas tents could hold the key to improvements in the production of biofuels, a team of government, academic and industry researchers has announced. In a paper published today in Nature Biot...

Lean and mean biomass-degrading fungus reveals capabilities for improved biofuel production

WALNUT CREEK, CAThe bane of military quartermasters may soon be a boon to biofuels producers. The genome analysis of a champion biomass-degrading fungus has revealed a surprisingly minimal repertoire of genes that it employs to break down plant cell walls, highlighting opportunities for further im...

Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History reveals ants as fungus farmers

It turns out ants, like humans, are true farmers. The difference is that ants are farming fungus. Entomologists Ted Schultz and Sen Brady at the Smithsonians National Museum of Natural History have published a paper in the March 24 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sc...

Killer fungus spells disaster for wheat

A WHEAT disease that could destroy most of the worlds main wheat crops could strike south Asias vast wheat fields two years earlier than research had suggested, leaving millions to starve. The fungus, called Ug99, has spread from Africa to Iran, and may already be in Pakistan. If so, this is extre...

Evolution of the sexes: What a fungus can tell us

DURHAM, N.C. -- Fungi don't exactly come in boy and girl varieties, but they do have sex differences. In fact, a new finding from Duke University Medical Center shows that some of the earliest evolved forms of fungus contain clues to how the sexes evolved in higher animals, including that distant ...

Scientists find missing evolutionary link using tiny fungus crystal

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The crystal structure of a molecule from a primitive fungus has served as a time machine to show researchers more about the evolution of life from the simple to the complex. By studying the three-dimensional version of the fungus protein bound to an RNA molecule, scientis...

Scientists complete genome sequence of fungus responsible for dandruff, skin disorders

Scientists from P&G Beauty announced that they successfully sequenced the complete genome for Malassezia globosa (M. globosa) , a naturally occurring fungus responsible for the onset of dandruff and other skin conditions in humans. Results of the genome sequencing are published in todays online ...

Researchers from around the globe coming to K-State June 21 for workshop on Fusarium fungus

Fusarium has been responsible for eye infections from contact lenses, devastating losses of Australian cotton crops and threatening the commercial banana business in Central America. Strains of this fungus pose a threat to the food supply, economies and -- more rarely but more dangerously -- ...

Scientists gather to protect global food security from return of devastating wheat fungus

The sudden and unexpected re-emergence of a fungus that could cripple wheat production in Africa, Asia and, eventually, Europe and the Americas, has prompted wheat experts from around the world, led by Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution, to gather March 17-20 in ...

New text focuses on formidable opportunistic fungus

Modern medical technologies are repairing the human body in ways never imagined only a few years ago, but they are leaving an increasing population of patients who are newly susceptible to opportunistic pathogens. Invasive and chronic fungal infections have become a formidable clinical opponent, a...

New type of fuel found in Patagonia fungus

BOZEMAN, Mont. -- A team led by a Montana State University professor has found a fungus that produces a new type of diesel fuel, which they say holds great promise. Calling the fungus' output "myco-diesel," Gary Strobel and his collaborators describe their initial observations in the November i...

Modern genetics vs. ancient frog-killing fungus

MOSCOW, Idaho Scientists at the University of Idaho currently are involved in a CSI-like investigation of a killer known to have been running rampant for the past decade. But the killer's name can't be found on the FBI's Most Wanted list. Instead, it's on the minds of ecologists on every continen...

Tomato stands firm in face of fungus

Scientists at the University of Amsterdam have discovered how to keep ones tomatoes from wilting the answer lies at the molecular level. The story of how the plant beat the pathogen, and what it means for combating other plant diseases, is published May 9th in the open-access journal PLoS Pathog...

Early exposure to indoor fungus molecules may protect infants against future allergies

Maybe being a fussy housekeeper isn’t such a good thing after all. Environmental health scientists at the University of Cincinnati (UC) say they have confirmed what other scientists have only suspected: early-life exposure to certain indoor fungal components (molecules) can help build stronger i...

Super-fermenting fungus genome sequenced

On the road to making biofuels more economically competitive with fossil fuels, there are significant potholes to negotiate. For cellulosic ethanol production, one major detour has being addressed with the characterization of the genetic blueprint of the fungus Pichia stipitis, by the U.S. Departm...

Breaking the mold: Research teams sequence three fungus genomes

From garden compost to forest greenery, the mold Aspergillus fumigatus lurks across much of the world. And so does its impact. The most common mold causing infection, A. fumigatus triggers allergic reactions, asthma attacks--and even deadly infections among people with weakened immune systems. ...

Scientists decipher genome of fungus that can cause life-threatening infections

In a project that already has benefited an important field of biomedical research, scientists have deciphered the genomes of two closely related strains of Cryptococcus neoformans, a fungus whose importance as a human pathogen has risen in parallel with the HIV/AIDS worldwide epidemic and the incre...

U of A honored for research that could help 30 million Brazilians

...ple in a vast region of Brazil. A newly discovered fungus that helps plants grow in dry soil has been named ...oots of nearby plants. Researchers want to put the fungus to work as an agricultural tool to increase food p...omy at the University of Rio de Janeiro, named the fungus after the U of A to acknowledge its assistance in ...

LSUHSC's Kolls awarded $1.8 million to improve vaccine strategies for P. carinii pneumonia

...ies that recognize carbohydrate (sugars) and proteins on the surface of the fungus that causes Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) can be used to prevent t...in antigen called Kex1, these antibodies can regulate direct killing of the fungus and confer immunity. "Understanding these antibody responses will improv...

New species of phallus-shaped mushroom named after California Academy of Sciences scientist

...paper. "It's a wonderful honor and great fun to have this phallus-shaped fungus named after me," says Drewes. "I have been immortalized in the scientific ... and gather data for conservation plans. Phallus drewesii was one of 225 fungus species that Desjardin and Perry collected during the 2006 and 2008 expedit...

Scientists tackle the mystery of white-nose syndrome in bats

...e-Nose Syndrome (WNS) due to its distinctive white fungus growing on the muzzles and other body parts of inf...cold climate fungus. Scientists do not know if the fungus is the sole cause of the bat deaths, or if it is m... Other evidence suggests that humans transport the fungus from infected sites to clean sites on clothing and...

Scientists unravel the mystery of white-nose syndrome

...e-Nose Syndrome (WNS) due to its distinctive white fungus growing on the muzzles and other body parts of inf...cold climate fungus. Scientists do not know if the fungus is the sole cause of the bat deaths, or if it is m... Other evidence suggests that humans transport the fungus from infected sites to clean sites on clothing and...

Temporary infidelity may contribute to the stability of ancient relationships

...lion years. Each young ant queen carries a bit of fungus garden with her when she flies away to mate and es...t. Short breaks in the ants' relationship with the fungus during nest establishment may contribute to the st...the University of Wisconsin. "Young queens adopt a fungus from another nest and cultivate it in their new ne...

Climate change driving Michigan mammals north

...s that have considerable ecological impact," Myers said. "They disperse seeds, they eat seeds, they eat the insects that kill trees, they disperse the fungus that grows in tree roots that is necessary for trees to grow, and they're the prey base for a huge number of carnivorous birds, mammals and snakes. Bu...

New study reveals the protein that makes phosphate chains in yeast

...ts. Because the VTC can move from the membrane of the vacuole to that of the cell, it could assemble phosphate chains and transfer them to outside the fungus cell, where they would be available to the plant. The research could also pave the way for new treatments for diseases such as sleeping sickness a...

Live-in domestics: Mites as maids in tropical rainforest sweat bee nests

...hen we took away the mites, the bee nests got dirtier. When we added mites, fungus counts went down. It is pretty clear that the mites clean up the cells wher...g are growing," Biani said. In return, the mites receive a clean, dry home, fungus to eat and free bee rides to new nests. ...

2009 ASPB Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship award announcement

...n a lab. I look forward to presenting my work in Montreal next summer. Jacquelyn Harth, The College of New Jersey Mentor: Janet Morrison Smut fungus infection of the perennial grass Andropogon virginicus I am thrilled to have been awarded an ASPB SURF for 2009. Already my undergraduate research ...

Spring fishing season arrives... and with it, amphibian diseases

... they bargained for: salamanders in bait shops in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico are infected with ranaviruses, and those in Arizona, with a chytrid fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd). "These diseases have spread with the global trade in amphibians,'" says James Collins, assistant direct...

New wheat disease could spread faster than expected

...ore rapidly than has been understood, according to a new study, in findings that pose serious concerns not only for some human diseases but also a new fungus that threatens global wheat production. The research, done by scientists at Oregon State University and other institutions, concluded that invading...

Gene to reduce wheat yield losses

...novel type of gene in wild wheat that is absent in modern pasta and bread wheat varieties. "This gene makes wheat more resistant to all stripe rust fungus races tested so far," said Dr Uauy. The gene confers resistance at relatively high temperatures, and a focus of Dr Cristobal Uauy's research at JIC...

Special issue of BMC Microbiology spotlights standardized language for describing microbes

...gi. The last paper in the supplement provides an example of how these annotations are made and showcases a whole- genome annotation of the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae using the Gene Ontology terms. Blast disease is one of the most destructive diseases of rice crop known worldwide. Gene Ontology te...

Biotech scientists team with curators to stem decay of world's art, cultural heritage

...-organisms and insects, causing decay and disintegration. New biotechnology techniques to be described include the use of micro-organisms to remove fungus and other problems on artwork, photos, documents, masonry and more. Prof. Giancarlo Ranalli, of the Universit degli Studi del Molise in Pesche, Ita...