76 articles
Absidia
Absidia (Tiegh., 1878) is a genus of mesophilic mucoralean moulds in Cunninghamellaceae, soil fungi with pyriform apophysate sporangia and appendaged zygospores; thermotolerant former members now form Lichtheimia.
Allomyces
Allomyces is a genus of aquatic saprobic fungi in the phylum Blastocladiomycota, established by E.J. Butler in 1911 and defined by a true alternation of generations between haploid and diploid phases.
Amphibian immunity to chytridiomycosis
Amphibian immunity to chytridiomycosis is the set of host defenses, including skin bacteria, antimicrobial peptides, and immune cells, that determines whether an amphibian survives infection by the fungi Bd and Bsal.
Arbuscular mycorrhiza
Arbuscular mycorrhiza is an ancient symbiosis, over 500 million years old, between most land plants' roots and soil fungi that supply phosphate and water in exchange for plant carbon.
Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis
Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is a chytrid fungus causing chytridiomycosis, the deadliest wildlife pathogen known; traced to Korea, it has driven over 500 amphibian species toward decline, with at least 90 extinctions.
Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans
Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal), the salamander-eating chytrid fungus, discovered in the Netherlands in 2013; kills fire salamanders within weeks, caused a 96% Dutch population crash, originated in Asia, and threatens North American salamanders.
Blastocladiales
Blastocladiales is an order of zoosporic fungi in the phylum Blastocladiomycota, containing soil and freshwater saprotrophs, parasites of plants and invertebrates, and laboratory models such as Allomyces.
Blastocladiomycetes as research organisms
Blastocladiomycetes are zoosporic fungi of the phylum Blastocladiomycota whose saprotrophic genera Allomyces and Blastocladiella have long served as laboratory models in developmental biology and genetics.
Blue cheese
Blue cheese: mold-ripened cheese veined with Penicillium roqueforti, made from cow's, goat's, or ewe's milk; over 100 varieties including Roquefort and Gorgonzola, many EU-protected.
Calcarisporiellomycotina
Calcarisporiellomycotina is a fungal subphylum in the phylum Calcarisporiellomycota, sister to Mucoromycota, with genera Calcarisporiella and Echinochlamydosporium, two described species, and the thermophile Calcarisporiella thermophila.
Chytridiomycosis
Chytridiomycosis, also called amphibian chytrid disease, is a fatal skin disease of amphibians caused by the fungi Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and B. salamandrivorans (Bsal), first described in 1998 and linked to at least 90 amphibian extinctions.
Chytridiomycota
Chytridiomycota (chytrids) is a fungal phylum of aquatic, zoosporic fungi with single posterior-flagellate zoospores and chitin-walled sporangia; once paraphyletic, now distinct from Blastocladiomycota and Neocallimastigomycota, and includes the amphibian pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis.
Coccidioides immitis
Coccidioides immitis is a dimorphic soil fungus of California deserts causing coccidioidomycosis (Valley fever); named in 1896, split from C. posadasii in 2002, forming spherules with endospores in lung tissue.
Coelomomyces
Coelomomyces, a genus of over 80 obligately parasitic blastoclad water moulds, kills mosquito larvae via a two-host life cycle alternating with copepods; no species has been cultured in vitro, limiting its biological control use.
Cunninghamella
Cunninghamella, a genus of Mucorales fungi (Cunninghamellaceae, Matruchot 1903), used as a microbial model mimicking mammalian phase I/II drug metabolism via CYP450, and an opportunistic cause of mucormycosis.
Decline in amphibian populations
Decline in amphibian populations: worldwide drop in frog, salamander, and caecilian numbers since the late 1950s, driven by habitat loss, chytridiomycosis (Bd, Bsal), and climate change; 40.7% of species threatened.
Detection and surveillance of chytridiomycosis
Detection and surveillance of chytridiomycosis are the laboratory methods and monitoring networks used to find the amphibian chytrid fungi Bd and Bsal, chiefly swab qPCR and environmental DNA assays.
Diagnosis of microsporidiosis
Diagnosis of microsporidiosis is the laboratory detection of microsporidia, which relies on special stains, PCR, and microscopy because the tiny 1–5 micrometer spores are missed by routine parasitology.
Disseminated and systemic microsporidiosis
Disseminated and systemic microsporidiosis is microsporidia infection, most often from Encephalitozoon species, spreading beyond the gut to kidneys, lungs, or brain in profoundly immunosuppressed people.
Encephalitozoon
Encephalitozoon is a genus of microsporidian fungi, intracellular parasites of mammals and birds; species E. cuniculi, E. hellem, and E. intestinalis infect rabbits, birds, and humans via polar-tube-bearing spores.
Endogonales
Endogonales: an order of early-diverging fungi in Mucoromycota, forming truffle-like zygospore sporocarps; families Endogonaceae and Densosporaceae; ectomycorrhizal, fine root endophyte, and liverwort symbionts of Silurian origin.
Endogone
Endogone, genus of Mucoromycota fungi (Endogonales, Endogonaceae) erected by Link 1809, type E. pisiformis; truffle-like zygospore sporocarps called pea truffles, ectomycorrhizal and plant-symbiotic, once a cross-phylum catch-all for AM fungi.
Enterocytozoon
Enterocytozoon, a genus of microsporidian fungi; type species Enterocytozoon bieneusi, the leading cause of human microsporidiosis and an AIDS-associated diarrheal pathogen; E. hepatopenaei retards shrimp growth in aquaculture.
Enterocytozoon bieneusi
Enterocytozoon bieneusi, the leading microsporidian parasite causing human microsporidiosis and diarrhea, first identified in AIDS patients in 1985; zoonotic, with over 500 ITS genotypes in humans, mammals, birds, and water.
Entomophthorales
Entomophthorales, an order of Entomophthoromycota fungi (formerly Zygomycota), are mostly insect pathogens infecting via ballistic conidia and chitinases; Basidiobolus and Conidiobolus species also cause human entomophthoromycosis.
Environmental drivers of chytridiomycosis
Environmental drivers of chytridiomycosis are the temperature, moisture, and habitat conditions that control the amphibian chytrid fungus Bd, which thrives at 17–25°C and persists in water and moist soil for months.
Epidemiology of microsporidiosis
Epidemiology of microsporidiosis: distribution and burden of human microsporidia infections (Enterocytozoon bieneusi, Encephalitozoon spp.), transmitted by water, fecal-oral, and zoonotic routes; 12% pooled prevalence in HIV/AIDS, 2–70% pre-ART, declining with antiretroviral therapy.
Ergosterol (β-ol)
Ergosterol (β-ol), 24R-methyl-cholesta-5,7,22-trienol, is the principal membrane sterol of most fungi, absent in mammals, target of azoles, allylamines, and polyenes, and the UV-converted precursor of vitamin D2.
Evolution of fungi
Evolution of fungi: from aquatic flagellated ancestors to terrestrial hyphal lineages; arbuscular mycorrhizal symbioses with 70-90% of land plants, 407-million-year-old Rhynie chert fossils, and mushroom diversification.
Fossil and evolutionary record of Glomeromycota
The fossil record of Glomeromycota, the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi symbiotic with about 85% of plant species, includes unequivocal arbuscules in Early Devonian plants from Scotland's Rhynie chert.