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PubMed2000

Cutaneous infection caused by Cylindrocarpon lichenicola in a patient with acute myelogenous leukemia.

Cylindrocarpon lichenicola is a saprophytic soil fungus which has rarely been associated with human disease. We report the first case of localized invasive cutaneous infection caused by this fungus in a 53-year-old male from the rural midwestern United States with relapsed acute myelogenous leukemia. On admission for induction chemotherapy, the patient was noted to have an abrasive laceration between the fourth and fifth metacarpophalangeal joints and on the dorsum of the right hand, which progressed to frank ulceration following chemotherapy. A biopsy provided an initial diagnosis of an invasive fungal infection consistent with aspergillosis based on the histopathological appearance of the mold in tissue. Multiple positive fungal cultures which were obtained from the biopsied tissue were subsequently identified by microscopic and macroscopic characteristics to be C. lichenicola. The infection resolved following marrow regeneration, aggressive debridement of the affected tissue, and treatment with amphotericin B. This case extends the conditions associated with invasive disease caused by C. lichenicola.

Dermatomycoses↗
PubMed2003

On the trail of a cereal killer: Exploring the biology of Magnaporthe grisea.

The blast fungus Magnaporthe grisea causes a serious disease on a wide variety of grasses including rice, wheat, and barley. Rice blast is the most serious disease of cultivated rice and therefore poses a threat to the world's most important food security crop. Here, I review recent progress toward understanding the molecular biology of plant infection by M. grisea, which involves development of a specialized cell, the appressorium. This dome-shaped cell generates enormous turgor pressure and physical force, allowing the fungus to breach the host cuticle and invade plant tissue. The review also considers the role of avirulence genes in M. grisea and the mechanisms by which resistant rice cultivars are able to perceive the fungus and defend themselves. Finally, the likely mechanisms that promote genetic diversity in M. grisea and our current understanding of the population structure of the blast fungus are evaluated.

Genetic Variation↗
PubMed2001

Seed treatment with beta-aminobutyric acid protects Pennisetum glaucum systemically from Sclerospora graminicola.

beta-Aminobutyric acid (BABA) treatment of pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L) R Br] seeds influenced seedling vigour and protected the seedlings from downy mildew disease caused by the oomycetous biotropic fungus Sclerospora graminicola (Sacc) Schroet. Of the different concentrations of BABA tested, viz 25, 50, 75 and 100 mM, seeds treated with 50 mM for 6 h resulted in the maximum of 1428 seedling vigour and showed 23% disease incidence in comparison with the control which recorded a seedling vigour of 1260 and 98% disease incidence i.e. 75% protection from disease. Seeds treated with BABA when challenged for downy mildew disease using zoospores of S graminicola required 48 h after inducer treatment to develop maximum resistance. Durability of induced resistance was also tested in plants raised from seeds treated with the inducer and identified as resistant, by second challenge inoculation with the downy mildew pathogen at tillers and inflorescence axes. Reduced disease incidence of only 10 and 12% in these plants, compared with 71 and 76% disease in control plants inoculated at the tillers and inflorescence axes, respectively, suggested that resistance induced in seeds with BABA remained operative through vegetative and reproductive growth of pearl millet plants. Induction of resistance by seed treatment with BABA enhanced vegetative growth, viz height, fresh weight, leaf area and tillering, and reproductive growth, viz early flowering, number of productive ear heads and 1000 seed weight. Studies on induction of resistance in different cultivars of pearl millet with varying resistance reaction to downy mildew indicated that the protection offered by BABA is independent of the nature of cultivars used and not dependent on their constitutive resistance.

Aminobutyrates↗
PubMed2003

Characterization of Plasmopara-resistance in grapevine using in vitro plants.

Although the exact mechanisms by which grapevine cells operate to reduce disease incidence caused by the downy mildew fungus Plasmopara viticola are not fully elucidated, our cytological results obtained from infected in vitro-plants confirm that enhanced disease resistance is associated with an expression of distinct reactions in a chronological order. An increased production of reactive oxygen species (superoxide radicals, 4-6 hours post infection, hpi) was followed by a hypersensitive response (6-8 hpi), an increased activity of peroxidase in cells flanking the infection area and in the vascular tissue (10-12 hpi) and an increased production, accumulation or conversion of phenolic compounds (12-15 hpi). These mechanisms seem also to be present in susceptible varieties as shown after an inoculation with non-host oomycetic pathogens on the basis of peroxidase activity, but they do not become activated after P. viticola infection. The investigation of the peroxidase activity in leaves at several time points after an infection with P. viticola indicated that there is a strong correlation between the POX activity in leaves of in vitro-plants and the resistance of grapevine plants to P. viticola in the field.

Culture Techniques↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Histoplasmosis].

Histoplasmosis are deep mycoses of present interest: they are part of fungal diseases of A.I.D.S. American histoplasmosis at Histoplasma capsulatum is a world wide disease, particularly present in the U.S.A., time to time observed in Africa south of the Sahara primarily among Europeans. African histoplasmosis at H. duboisii is typically an African continent disease. H. capsulatum is a telluric fungus and man is contaminated from soil to his respiratory tract. It depends on his immunitary status that he develops either a non symptomatic affection or a severe one, even a fatal one. Epidemiology of H. duboisii is still full of unknowns. Pathological manifestations of each disease are very different: American histoplasmosis displays three stages: primary infection, spread attacks spontaneously fatal, chronic pulmonary form simulating sometimes a pseudo-tumor, pathologic manifestations of African histoplasmosis, studied from 206 cases already published, are primarily related to skin, glands and bones attack, displaying either a localized form or an immediately spread form. Diagnosis is based on finding the fungus in different samples, on research of sera-antibodies, often on anatomopathological investigations. At the present time, ketoconazole is the treatment. Histoplasmosis at H. capsulatum as well as at H.duboisii might appear outside endemic zones several years after contamination.

Africa↗
PubMed2000

Adherence and intracellular parasitism of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis in Vero cells.

Paracoccidioides brasiliensis is a dimorphic fungus known to produce invasive systemic disease in humans. The 43-kDa glycoprotein of P. brasiliensis is the major diagnostic antigen of paracoccidioidomycosis and may act as a virulence factor, since it is a receptor for laminin.Very little is known about early interactions between this fungus and the host cells, so we developed in vitro a model system employing cultured mammalian cells (Vero cells), in order to investigate the factors and virulence mechanisms of P.brasiliensis related to the adhesion and invasion process. We found that there is a permanent interaction after 30 min of contact between the fungus and the cells. The yeasts multiply in the cells for between 5 and 24 h. Different strains of P. brasiliensis were compared, and strain 18 (high virulence) was the most strongly adherent, followed by strain 113 (virulent), 265 (considered of low virulence) and 113M (mutant obtained by ultraviolet radiation, deficient in gp43). P. brasiliensis adhered to the epithelial cells by a narrow tube, while depressions were noticed in the cell surface, suggesting an active cavitation process. An inhibition assay was performed and it was verified that anti-gp43 serum and a pool of sera from individuals with paracoccidioidomycosis were able to inhibit the adhesion of P. brasiliensis to the Vero cells. Glycoprotein 43 (gp43) antiserum abolished 85% of the binding activity of P. brasiliensis. This fungus can also invade the Vero cells, and intraepithelial parasitism could be an escape mechanism in paracoccidioidomycosis.

Animals↗
PubMed1982

[Maduromycotic mycetoma in a horse].

A case of maduromycotic mycetoma (eumycetoma) in seven years old draught horse is described. The disease was localized in anal region and healed after surgical treatment. Attention is drawn to the necessity of distinguishing three types of mycosis in horses, characterized by the origin of tumor lesions - mycetomas, hyphomycosis and entomophthoromycosis - and information was gathered on their etiology and geographical occurrence. On the basis of the morphology of fungal elements traced in inflammated changed tissues and with regard to the existing findings on the origin of eumycetoma in animals, it was concluded that the disease described was probably caused by fungus Allescheria boydii Shear. Exact definition of the causative agent was impossible without mycological cultivation.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Effects of feeding Ascochyta-infected and normal lentils to rats (short-term study).

Weanling, female, Sprague-Dawley rats were fed diets containing either rat chow with no lentils, 80% normal lentils or 80% diseased lentils heavily infected with the fungus Ascochyta lentis. Body weight, feed consumption and clinical appearance were monitored over 90 days and blood samples were collected at the termination of the experiment. Weight gain and feed consumption were similar in the control group and the group fed diseased lentils. Weight gain was slightly depressed in the group fed normal lentils. These effects were attributed to the lentils being a poorer source of protein than the wheat, barley and soybean meal used in the control diet, but the protein content of the diseased lentils was higher than the normal lentils. Total white blood cell counts and lymphocyte counts were significantly depressed (P = 0.05) in the group fed the diseased lentil diet. Significant differences (P = 0.05) were found among groups in the ratios of liver, kidney and spleen weights to body weight.

Animal Feed↗
PubMed1977

Epidemiological features of the mycotoxicoses.

Although mycotoxicoses attract more and more attention, the epidemiology of these diseases is still not adequately studied. The author devotes his study to certain diseases. In addition to the diseases whose mycotoxic nature is in no doubt, he conditionally includes certain diseases whose mycotoxic causation needs further proof. The author has assigned stachybotryotoxicosis and alimentary toxic aleukia or fusariotoxicosis to the first category and endemic nephropathy and primary liver-cell carcinoma to the second. His intention in adopting this approach is to establish the common features and differences in their epidemiological manifestations. Epidemiological studies not only help to define the incidence and prevalence of these disease but also make an important contribution to the determination of their nature. When stachybotryotoxicosis--the "unknown horse disease"--was being studied in the mid-thirties, in the Ukraine, the research workers headed by V. G. DROBOTKO, noticed that horses belonging to the Army remained unaffected while in the same localities those belonging to the collective farms were stricken by this "unknown disease". This epidemiological phenomenon suggested the hypothesis that the unknown diseases must be due to fodder, which was different for horses belonging to the Army and those belonging to the collective farms. This led members of the team to investigate the mycoflora of the fodder. The collective farmers themselves had noted the link between the disease and the feeding of poor quality musty straw to horses. For that reason in every collective farm where such cases occurred samples of the available fodder were studied. The numerous investigations remained fruitless for a long time until P. D. JATEL discovered straw which had been fed to horses before an outbreak of the disease. This straw contained a blackened layer copiously overgrown with the fungus Stachybotrys alternans. Feeding of fodder infected with that fungus to experimental horses reproduced the pattern of the "unknown disease", which thereafter began to be known as "stachybotryotoxicosis". When human stachybotryotoxocosis was studied, all the clues in the epidemiological investigation pointed to barley straw as a source of the disease. F. A. LINNIK (1938) noted that immediately before falling sick patients had been in close contact with musty straw. Among collective farmers the disease had a sudden onset and was mainly confined to men. No one contracted the disease who had not something to do with this musty straw. The members of the families of the patients also remained in good health. The disease bore a familial character when farmers had used the straw as litter on their private holdings. In their study of the nature of alimentary toxic aleukia, S. G. MIRONOV and M. K...

Animals↗
PubMed2005

The genome sequence of the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe grisea.

Magnaporthe grisea is the most destructive pathogen of rice worldwide and the principal model organism for elucidating the molecular basis of fungal disease of plants. Here, we report the draft sequence of the M. grisea genome. Analysis of the gene set provides an insight into the adaptations required by a fungus to cause disease. The genome encodes a large and diverse set of secreted proteins, including those defined by unusual carbohydrate-binding domains. This fungus also possesses an expanded family of G-protein-coupled receptors, several new virulence-associated genes and large suites of enzymes involved in secondary metabolism. Consistent with a role in fungal pathogenesis, the expression of several of these genes is upregulated during the early stages of infection-related development. The M. grisea genome has been subject to invasion and proliferation of active transposable elements, reflecting the clonal nature of this fungus imposed by widespread rice cultivation.

Fungal Proteins↗
PubMed2004

Coccidioidomycosis.

Coccidioidomycosis is a fungal infection caused by Coccidiodes. The fungus has a limited geographic distribution but the disease can be seen anywhere. Primary infection is usually self-limited; however, when a large dose of fungus is inhaled or in an immunosuppressed host, the patient may develop overwhelming infection, including ARDS, in a brief period. While serodiagnosis can help to suspect the diagnosis, particularly in the setting of overwhelming disease, diagnostic efforts should focus on identifying the organism in body fluids or tissues. Several treatment options are available. Amphotericin B was the drug of choice for decades when there were no alternatives. Triazoles, fluconazole and itraconazole, are very effective and much less toxic.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1984

Kwashiorkor.

Kwashiorkor kills millions of young children in the tropical Third World. It was believed to be a disease of protein starvation. The medical team headed by Professor Ralph Henrickse of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has discovered that aflatoxin, a fungus toxin, may be the triggering factor in this disease which also impairs liver function. In New Zealand, we have a pasture fungus, the spores of which produce a liver toxin that has killed millions of animals this century and impaired the performance of millions more. New Zealand is a pastoral farming country with 70 million sheep and several million cattle. We now protect the animal with zinc medication. This paper describes the similarities between Kwashiorkor and the mycotoxic liver disease in New Zealand livestock, known locally as Facial Eczema. It describes briefly my discovery that pharmacological doses of zinc protected farm animals from pasture contaminated with the spores of the fungus Pithomyces chartarum, which contains the toxin sporidesmin. This paper proposes that Kwashiorkor and Facial Eczema are diseases with similar beginnings and a common end.

Aflatoxins↗
PubMed1995

[A case of chronic necrotizing pulmonary aspergillosis in which intravenous infusion of amphotericin B was effective].

A 49-year-old man with a history of left upper lung lobectomy for pulmonary asperigilloma developed a productive cough in the middle of April 1992, and his chest X-ray film showed infiltration of the left S6. Treatment with several different antibiotics was tried, but the shadow expanded and developed a cavity over the following 8 months. A clinical diagnosis of chronic necrotizing pulmonary aspergillosis was made, based on repeated detection of Aspergillus fumigatus in the patient's sputum and in specimens obtained by fiberoptic branchoscopy and percuraneous needle biopsy. Prior lobectomy and a marked idiopathic decrease in ventilation and perfusion in the affected lung are risk factors for this disease. Slow intravenous infusion of amphotericin B eradicated the fungus without any side effects. Measurement of drug concentrations during treatment revealed that the concentration in the sputum was far higher than that in the serum, and was also far higher than the minimum inhibitory concentration for the fungus.

Amphotericin B↗
PubMed1999

The mating-type and pathogenicity locus of the fungus Ustilago hordei spans a 500-kb region.

The fungal pathogen Ustilago hordei causes the covered smut disease of barley and oats. Mating and pathogenicity in this fungus are controlled by the MAT locus, which contains two distinct gene complexes, a and b. In this study, we tagged the a and b regions with the recognition sequence for the restriction enzyme I-SceI and determined that the distance between the complexes is 500 kb in a MAT-1 strain and 430 kb in a MAT-2 strain. Characterization of the organization of the known genes within the a and b gene complexes provided evidence for nonhomology and sequence inversion between MAT-1 and MAT-2. Antibiotic-resistance markers also were used to tag the a gene complex in MAT-1 strains (phleomycin) and the b gene complex in MAT-2 strains (hygromycin). Crosses were performed with these strains and progeny resistant to both antibiotics were recovered at a very low frequency, suggesting that recombination is suppressed within the MAT region. Overall, the chromosome homologues carrying the MAT locus of U. hordei share features with primitive sex chromosomes, with the added twist that the MAT locus also controls pathogenicity.

Avena↗
PubMed1983

Immunologic abnormalities in botryomycosis. A case report with review of the literature.

Botryomycosis in an uncommon chronic bacterial infection that mimics fungal disease clinically and histologically. Microscopically the hallmark of the disease is the presence of fungus-like granules in which the causative organism is embedded. A patient with typical cutaneous botryomycosis is presented, along with the immunologic abnormalities discovered on laboratory examination. The botryomycosis literature is reviewed, with special emphasis on the immunologic status of the host. Additional studies of the causative organism and cell-mediated immunity in the host in future patients with botryomycosis may help to further elucidate the pathogenesis of this most interesting disease.

Escherichia coli Infections↗