Articles

Identification of the decumbenone biosynthetic gene cluster in Penicillium decumbens and the importance for production of calbistrin

Filamentous fungi are important producers of secondary metabolites, low molecular weight molecules that often have bioactive properties. Calbistrin A is a secondary metabolite with an interesting structure tha...

Authors: Sietske Grijseels, Carsten Pohl, Jens Christian Nielsen, Zahida Wasil, Yvonne Nygård, Jens Nielsen, Jens C. Frisvad, Kristian Fog Nielsen, Mhairi Workman, Thomas Ostenfeld Larsen, Arnold J. M. Driessen and Rasmus John Normand Frandsen

Translocated duplication of a targeted chromosomal segment enhances gene expression at the duplicated site and results in phenotypic changes in Aspergillus oryzae

Translocated chromosomal duplications occur spontaneously in many organisms; segmental duplications of large chromosomal regions are expected to result in phenotypic changes because of gene dosage effects. The...

Authors: Tadashi Takahashi, Masahiro Ogawa, Atsushi Sato and Yasuji Koyama

A community-driven reconstruction of the Aspergillus niger metabolic network

Aspergillus niger is an important fungus used in industrial applications for enzyme and acid production. To enable rational metabolic engineering of the species, available information can be collected and integra...

Authors: Julian Brandl, Maria Victoria Aguilar-Pontes, Paul Schäpe, Anders Noerregaard, Mikko Arvas, Arthur F. J. Ram, Vera Meyer, Adrian Tsang, Ronald P. de Vries and Mikael R. Andersen

Truncation of the transcriptional repressor protein Cre1 in Trichoderma reesei Rut-C30 turns it into an activator

The filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei (T. reesei) is a natural producer of cellulolytic and xylanolytic enzymes and is therefore industrially used. Many industries require high amounts of enzymes, in particul...

Authors: Alice Rassinger, Agnieszka Gacek-Matthews, Joseph Strauss, Robert L. Mach and Astrid R. Mach-Aigner

Evolutionary freedom in the regulation of the conserved itaconate cluster by Ria1 in related Ustilaginaceae

Itaconate is getting growing biotechnological significance, due to its use as a platform compound for the production of bio-based polymers, chemicals, and novel fuels. Currently, Aspergillus terreus is used for i...

Authors: Elena Geiser, Hamed Hosseinpour Tehrani, Svenja Meyer, Lars M. Blank and Nick Wierckx

Whole-genome sequencing reveals highly specific gene targeting by in vitro assembled Cas9-ribonucleoprotein complexes in Aspergillus fumigatus

CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing is quickly becoming a powerful tool within the field of fungal genetics. Adaptation of CRISPR/Cas9 systems are allowing for rapid and highly efficient gene targeting within fun...

Authors: Qusai Al Abdallah, Ana Camila Oliveira Souza, Adela Martin-Vicente, Wenbo Ge and Jarrod R. Fortwendel

Genome-wide analysis of cytochrome P450s of Trichoderma spp.: annotation and evolutionary relationships

Cytochrome P450s form an important group of enzymes involved in xenobiotics degradation and metabolism, both primary and secondary. These enzymes are also useful in industry as biotechnological tools for bioco...

Authors: Sonia Chadha, Sayaji T. Mehetre, Ravindra Bansal, Alan Kuo, Andrea Aerts, Igor V. Grigoriev, Irina S. Druzhinina and Prasun K. Mukherjee

How a fungus shapes biotechnology: 100 years of Aspergillus niger research

In 1917, a food chemist named James Currie made a promising discovery: any strain of the filamentous mould Aspergillus niger would produce high concentrations of citric acid when grown in sugar medium. This trica...

Authors: Timothy C. Cairns, Corrado Nai and Vera Meyer

Gene regulation associated with sexual development and female fertility in different isolates of Trichoderma reesei

Trichoderma reesei is one of the most frequently used filamentous fungi in industry for production of homologous and heterologous proteins. The ability to use sexual crossing in this fungus was discovered several...

Authors: Christoph Dattenböck, Doris Tisch, Andre Schuster, Alberto Alonso Monroy, Wolfgang Hinterdobler and Monika Schmoll

Improved microscale cultivation of Pichia pastoris for clonal screening

Expanding the application of technical enzymes, e.g., in industry and agriculture, commands the acceleration and cost-reduction of bioprocess development. Microplates and shake flasks are massively employed du...

Authors: Alexander Eck, Matthias Schmidt, Stefanie Hamer, Anna Joelle Ruff, Jan Förster, Ulrich Schwaneberg, Lars M. Blank, Wolfgang Wiechert and Marco Oldiges

Regulation of plant cell wall degradation by light in Trichoderma

Trichoderma reesei (syn. Hypocrea jecorina) is the model organism for industrial production of plant cell wall degradating enzymes. The integration of light and nutrient signals for adaptation of enzyme productio...

Authors: Monika Schmoll

Vegan-mycoprotein concentrate from pea-processing industry byproduct using edible filamentous fungi

Currently around one billion people in the world do not have access to a diet which provides enough protein and energy. However, the production of one of the main sources of protein, animal meat, causes severe...

Authors: Pedro F. Souza Filho, Ramkumar B. Nair, Dan Andersson, Patrik R. Lennartsson and Mohammad J. Taherzadeh

Correction to: Aspergillus niger is a superior expression host for the production of bioactive fungal cyclodepsipeptides

Following publication of the original article [1], the authors reported that there is a mistake in the legend of Figure 4; the explanation of the symbols has been mixed up. The corrected version of Figure 4 is...

Authors: Simon Boecker, Stefan Grätz, Dennis Kerwat, Lutz Adam, David Schirmer, Lennart Richter, Tabea Schütze, Daniel Petras, Roderich D. Süssmuth and Vera Meyer

CoIN: co-inducible nitrate expression system for secondary metabolites in Aspergillus nidulans

Sequencing of fungal species has demonstrated the existence of thousands of putative secondary metabolite gene clusters, the majority of them harboring a unique set of genes thought to participate in productio...

Authors: Philipp Wiemann, Alexandra A. Soukup, Jacob S. Folz, Pin-Mei Wang, Andreas Noack and Nancy P. Keller

Aspergillus niger is a superior expression host for the production of bioactive fungal cyclodepsipeptides

Fungal cyclodepsipeptides (CDPs) are non-ribosomally synthesized peptides produced by a variety of filamentous fungi and are of interest to the pharmaceutical industry due to their anticancer, antimicrobial an...

Authors: Simon Boecker, Stefan Grätz, Dennis Kerwat, Lutz Adam, David Schirmer, Lennart Richter, Tabea Schütze, Daniel Petras, Roderich D. Süssmuth and Vera Meyer

Cinnamomum zeylanicum bark essential oil induces cell wall remodelling and spindle defects in Candida albicans

Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) bark extract exhibits potent inhibitory activity against Candida albicans but the antifungal mechanisms of this essential oil remain largely unexplored.

Authors: Zinnat Shahina, Amira M. El-Ganiny, Jessica Minion, Malcolm Whiteway, Taranum Sultana and Tanya E. S. Dahms

Heterologous and endogenous U6 snRNA promoters enable CRISPR/Cas9 mediated genome editing in Aspergillus niger

U6 promoters have been used for single guide RNA (sgRNA) transcription in the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated protein (CRISPR/Cas9) genome editing system. However, no ....

Authors: Xiaomei Zheng, Ping Zheng, Jibin Sun, Zhang Kun and Yanhe Ma

Production of Aspergillus niger biomass on sugarcane distillery wastewater: physiological aspects and potential for biodiesel production

Sugarcane distillery waste water (SDW) or vinasse is the residual liquid waste generated during sugarcane molasses fermentation and alcohol distillation. Worldwide, this effluent is responsible for serious env...

Authors: Graziella Chuppa-Tostain, Julien Hoarau, Marie Watson, Laetitia Adelard, Alain Shum Cheong Sing, Yanis Caro, Isabelle Grondin, Isabelle Bourven, Jean-Marie Francois, Elisabeth Girbal-Neuhauser and Thomas Petit

Vita activa in biotechnology: what we do with fungi and what fungi do with us

Filamentous fungi are fascinating microorganisms. One of the reasons why it is so worthwhile to take a closer look at them is their capacity to produce secondary metabolites. Some of these substances have the ...

Authors: Martin Weinhold, Edeltraud Mast-Gerlach and Vera Meyer

ATNT: an enhanced system for expression of polycistronic secondary metabolite gene clusters in Aspergillus niger

Fungi are treasure chests for yet unexplored natural products. However, exploitation of their real potential remains difficult as a significant proportion of biosynthetic gene clusters appears silent under sta...

Authors: Elena Geib and Matthias Brock

Spontaneous and CRISPR/Cas9-induced mutation of the osmosensor histidine kinase of the canola pathogen Leptosphaeria maculans

The dicarboximide fungicide iprodione has been used to combat blackleg disease of canola (Brassica napus), caused by the fungus Leptosphaeria maculans. For example, in Australia the fungicide was used in the late...

Authors: Alexander Idnurm, Andrew S. Urquhart, Dinesh R. Vummadi, Steven Chang, Angela P. Van de Wouw and Francisco J. López-Ruiz

Promoters from the itaconate cluster of Ustilago maydis are induced by nitrogen depletion

Ustilago maydis is known for its natural potential to produce a broad range of valuable chemicals, such as itaconate, from both industrial carbon waste streams and renewable biomass. P...

Authors: Thiemo Zambanini, Sandra K. Hartmann, Lisa M. Schmitz, Linda Büttner, Hamed Hosseinpour Tehrani, Elena Geiser, Melanie Beudels, Dominik Venc, Georg Wandrey, Jochen Büchs, Markus Schwarzländer, Lars M. Blank and Nick Wierckx

Comparing the physiochemical parameters of three celluloses reveals new insights into substrate suitability for fungal enzyme production

The industrial applications of cellulases are mostly limited by the costs associated with their production. Optimized production pathways are therefore desirable. Based on their enzyme inducing capacity, cellu...

Authors: Lara Hassan, Manfred J. Reppke, Nils Thieme, Steffen A. Schweizer, Carsten W. Mueller and J. Philipp Benz

Openness and visibility of fungal bio(techno)logy

Authors: Vera Meyer, Corrado Nai and Alexander Idnurm

Physiological characterization of secondary metabolite producing Penicillium cell factories

Penicillium species are important producers of bioactive secondary metabolites. However, the immense diversity of the fungal kingdom is only scarcely represented in industrial bioproce...

Authors: Sietske Grijseels, Jens Christian Nielsen, Jens Nielsen, Thomas Ostenfeld Larsen, Jens Christian Frisvad, Kristian Fog Nielsen, Rasmus John Normand Frandsen and Mhairi Workman

Emergence and loss of spliceosomal twin introns

In the primary transcript of nuclear genes, coding sequences—exons—usually alternate with non-coding sequences—introns. In the evolution of spliceosomal intron–exon structure, extant intron positions can be ab...

Authors: Michel Flipphi, Norbert Ág, Levente Karaffa, Napsugár Kavalecz, Gustavo Cerqueira, Claudio Scazzocchio and Erzsébet Fekete

A silver bullet in a golden age of functional genomics: the impact of Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of fungi

The implementation of Agrobacterium tumefaciens as a transformation tool revolutionized approaches to discover and understand gene functions in a large number of fungal species. A. tumefaciens mediated transforma...

Authors: Alexander Idnurm, Andy M. Bailey, Timothy C. Cairns, Candace E. Elliott, Gary D. Foster, Giuseppe Ianiri and Junhyun Jeon

Marine fungi in the spotlight: opportunities and challenges for marine fungal natural product discovery and biotechnology

The marine fungal natural products (MaFNaP) Consortium, a scientific network founded in 2014, aims to fuel systematic research on marine fungi and their secondary metabolites. The 2nd international conference ...

Authors: Deniz Tasdemir

Filamentous ascomycetes fungi as a source of natural pigments

Filamentous fungi, including the ascomycetes Monascus, Fusarium, Penicillium and Neurospora, are being explored as novel sources of natural pigments with biological functionality for food, feed and cosmetic appli...

Authors: Rebecca Gmoser, Jorge A. Ferreira, Patrik R. Lennartsson and Mohammad J. Taherzadeh

Multiple genotypes within aecial clusters in Puccinia graminis and Puccinia coronata: improved understanding of the biology of cereal rust fungi

Cereal rust fungi (Puccinia spp.) are among the most economically important plant pathogens. These fungi have a complex life cycle, including five spore stages and two hosts. They infect one grass host on which t...

Authors: Anna Berlin, Berit Samils and Björn Andersson

The fungal composition of natural biofinishes on oil-treated wood

Biofinished wood is considered to be a decorative and protective material for outdoor constructions, showing advantages compared to traditional treated wood in terms of sustainability and self-repair. Natural ...

Authors: Elke J. van Nieuwenhuijzen, Jos A. M. P. Houbraken, Peter J. Punt, Guus Roeselers, Olaf C. G. Adan and Robert A. Samson

A flavoprotein supports cell wall properties in the necrotrophic fungus Alternaria brassicicola

Flavin-dependent monooxygenases are involved in key biological processes as they catalyze a wide variety of chemo-, regio- and enantioselective oxygenation reactions. Flavoprotein monooxygenases are frequently...

Authors: Sandrine Pigné, Agata Zykwinska, Etienne Janod, Stéphane Cuenot, Mohammed Kerkoud, Roxane Raulo, Nelly Bataillé-Simoneau, Muriel Marchi, Anthony Kwasiborski, Guillaume N’Guyen, Guillaume Mabilleau, Philippe Simoneau and Thomas Guillemette

The beauty and the morbid: fungi as source of inspiration in contemporary art

The arts have the power to irritate, to provoke and to let us think and dream about the impossible. The relationship of the arts and fungi is not immediate; however, fungi are ideal subjects for artists. They ...

Authors: Corrado Nai and Vera Meyer

The freedom of choice

Authors: Vera Meyer and Alexander Idnurm

Update on Nox function, site of action and regulation in Botrytis cinerea

The production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and a balanced redox homeostasis are essential parameters, which control the infection process of the plant pathogen Botrytis cinerea. The necrotrophic fungus is ab...

Authors: Robert Marschall, Ulrike Siegmund, Joachim Burbank and Paul Tudzynski

Volatile organic compounds emitted by Trichoderma species mediate plant growth

Many Trichoderma species are applied as biofungicides and biofertilizers to agricultural soils to enhance crop growth. These filamentous fungi have the ability to reduce plant diseases and promote plant growth an...

Authors: Samantha Lee, Melanie Yap, Gregory Behringer, Richard Hung and Joan W. Bennett

Current challenges of research on filamentous fungi in relation to human welfare and a sustainable bio-economy: a white paper

The EUROFUNG network is a virtual centre of multidisciplinary expertise in the field of fungal biotechnology. The first academic-industry Think Tank was hosted by EUROFUNG to summarise the state of the art and...

Authors: Vera Meyer, Mikael R. Andersen, Axel A. Brakhage, Gerhard H. Braus, Mark X. Caddick, Timothy C. Cairns, Ronald P. de Vries, Thomas Haarmann, Kim Hansen, Christiane Hertz-Fowler, Sven Krappmann, Uffe H. Mortensen, Miguel A. Peñalva, Arthur F. J. Ram and Ritchie M. Head

Let microorganisms do the talking, let us talk more about microorganisms

Microorganisms are of uttermost importance, yet in the eyes of the general public they are often associated with dirt and diseases. At the same time, microbiologists have access to and comprehensive knowledge ...

Authors: Corrado Nai, Boris Magrini and Julia Offe

Two genomes are better than one: history, genetics, and biotechnological applications of fungal heterokaryons

Heterokaryosis is an integral part of the parasexual cycle used by predominantly asexual fungi to introduce and maintain genetic variation in populations. Research into fungal heterokaryons began in 1912 and c...

Authors: Noah B. Strom and Kathryn E. Bushley

Effect of secretory pathway gene overexpression on secretion of a fluorescent reporter protein in Aspergillus nidulans

The considerable capacity of filamentous fungi for the secretion of proteins is the basis for multi-billion dollar industries producing enzymes and proteins with therapeutic value. The stepwise pathway from t...

Authors: Martin Schalén, Diana Chinyere Anyaogu, Jakob Blæsbjerg Hoof and Mhairi Workman

Identification and characterization of the ergochrome gene cluster in the plant pathogenic fungus Claviceps purpurea

Claviceps purpurea is a phytopathogenic fungus infecting a broad range of grasses including economically important cereal crop plants. The infection cycle ends with the formation of th...

Authors: Lisa Neubauer, Julian Dopstadt, Hans-Ulrich Humpf and Paul Tudzynski

Simple sequence repeat markers that identify Claviceps species and strains

Claviceps purpurea is a pathogen that infects most members of Pooideae, a subfamily of Poaceae, and causes ergot, a floral disease in which the ovary is replaced with a sclerotium. Whe...

Authors: Barbara S. Gilmore, Stephen C. Alderman, Brian J. Knaus, Nahla V. Bassil, Ruth C. Martin, James E. Dombrowski and Jeremiah K. S. Dung

Production of cyathane type secondary metabolites by submerged cultures of Hericium erinaceus and evaluation of their antibacterial activity by direct bioautography

Fungi of the phylum Basidiomycota are well-known to form a broad spectrum of biologically active secondary metabolites, especially low molecular weight compounds such as terpenoids. Hericium erinaceus produces va...

Authors: T. Shen, G. Morlock and H. Zorn

Geographic information system (GIS)-based image analysis for assessing growth of Physarum polycephalum on a solid medium

The conventional method used to assess growth of the plasmodium of the slime mold Physarum polycephalum in solid culture is to measure the extent of plasmodial expansion from the point of inoculation by using a r...

Authors: Hanh T. M. Tran, Steven L. Stephenson and Jason A. Tullis

Unlocking the potential of fungi: the QuantFung project

Authors: Zsófia Büttel, Rafael Díaz, Benedict Dirnberger, Michal Flak, Sietske Grijseels, Min Jin Kwon, Jens Christian Froslev Nielsen, Yvonne Nygård, Pradeep Phule, Carsten Pohl, Sylvain Prigent, Milica Randelovic, Tabea Schütze, Danielle Troppens and Annarita Viggiano

A framework for an organelle-based mathematical modeling of hyphae

Although highly desirable, a mechanistic explanation for the outstanding protein secretion capabilities of fungi such as Aspergilli is missing. As a result, a rational and predictive design of strains as cell fac...

Authors: Rudibert King

Efficient gene editing in Neurospora crassa with CRISPR technology

Efficient gene editing is a critical tool for investigating molecular mechanisms of cellular processes and engineering organisms for numerous purposes ranging from biotechnology to medicine. Recently developed...

Authors: Toru Matsu-ura, Mokryun Baek, Jungin Kwon and Christian Hong

Phytochelatin synthase is required for tolerating metal toxicity in a basidiomycete yeast and is a conserved factor involved in metal homeostasis in fungi

Phytochelatin synthase (PCS) is an enzyme that catalyzes the biosynthesis of phytochelatin from glutathione. Phytochelatins protect cells against the toxic effects of non-essential heavy metals, such as cadmiu...

Authors: Alaina M Shine, Viplendra PS Shakya and Alexander Idnurm

A new vector for efficient gene targeting to the pyrG locus in Aspergillus niger

The possibility for efficient gene targeting for the controlled integration of DNA constructs is an important tool in fungal genetics.

Authors: Mark Arentshorst, Ellen L Lagendijk and Arthur FJ Ram

Penicillium nalgiovense Laxa isolated from Antarctica is a new source of the antifungal metabolite amphotericin B

The need for new antibiotic drugs increases as pathogenic microorganisms continue to develop resistance against current antibiotics. We obtained samples from Antarctica as part of a search for new antimicrobia...

Authors: K Stefan Svahn, Erja Chryssanthou, Björn Olsen, Lars Bohlin and Ulf Göransson