Publications by authors named "Begerow D"

Article Synopsis
  • Recent taxonomic reorganization has raised questions about the host associations of these fungi, revealing that many have broad host specificity, often interacting with more than 10 different species.
  • The study aims to assess how host taxonomy affects evolutionary patterns, showing that the colonization of hosts by these fungi is complex, revealing several distinct species previously thought to be the same and identifying three new species from various mountainous regions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • * A bibliometric analysis was conducted to identify the top 100 most cited fungal genera, examining why some have more influence on mycology than others.
  • * The paper discusses case studies for these top genera, providing insights into their ecology, economic impact, and key scientific advancements, while also outlining the historical context of research on these fungi.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The debates over the requirement of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICNafp) for a viable specimen to represent the name-bearing type material for a species or infraspecific taxon have a long history. Taxonomy of fungi commonly studied as living cultures exemplified by yeasts and moulds, strongly depend on viable reference material. The availability of viable cultures is also particularly useful for several groups of filamentous and dimorphic fungi.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study describes numerous new species of fungi discovered across various environments, including leaf spots, dead insects, soil, and wood from diverse locations around the world.
  • The fungi were isolated from multiple substrates, such as decaying organic matter, living plants, and even specific habitats like semi-desert montane areas and mixed forests.
  • Morphological traits and genetic analysis through DNA barcoding confirm the classification and distinct characteristics of these fungal species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Mycoparasites are a diverse group of fungi that interact with their hosts through structures called colacosomes, aiding their penetration of cell walls.
  • A study explored these colacosomes, particularly in newly identified mycoparasite species, and assessed their morphology and physiological traits through advanced microscopy and DNA analysis.
  • The research expanded the known range of colacosome-forming fungi to 27 species and revealed distinct types of colacosome organization, contributing to the understanding of fungal interactions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The outer membrane (OM) protects Gram-negative bacteria from harsh environmental conditions and provides intrinsic resistance to many antimicrobial compounds. The asymmetric OM is characterized by phospholipids in the inner leaflet and lipopolysaccharides (LPS) in the outer leaflet. Previous reports suggested an involvement of the signaling nucleotide ppGpp in cell envelope homeostasis in .

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The Ustilaginales are a group of plant-parasitic fungi with a unique life cycle linking sexual reproduction and infection, yet some related species (like Pseudozyma) lack described parasitic stages.
  • Recent genomic analysis of five Pseudozyma and six parasitic species revealed the presence of conserved genes essential for mating and meiosis, suggesting these non-parasitic species retain some sexual reproductive capabilities.
  • These findings challenge the notion of asexuality in these species, indicating that they may still play significant roles in evolution and ecology despite lacking a known parasitic form.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Worldwide, the environmental nitrate (NO) problem is increasingly coming into focus. These increases in NO concentration result mainly from agricultural inputs and are further exacerbated by decreasing and finite geogenic NO degradation capacity in aquifers. Thus, treatment methods are becoming more and more important.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Activity-based protein profiling (ABPP) has emerged as a versatile biochemical method for studying enzyme activity under various physiological conditions, with applications so far mainly in biomedicine. Here, we show the potential of ABPP in the discovery of biocatalysts from the thermophilic and lignocellulose-degrading white rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium. By employing a comparative ABPP-based functional screen, including a direct profiling of wood substrate-bound enzymes, we identify those lignocellulose-degrading carbohydrate esterase (CE1 and CE15) and glycoside hydrolase (GH3, GH5, GH16, GH17, GH18, GH25, GH30, GH74 and GH79) enzymes specifically active in presence of the substrate.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Lathyrus tuberosus is a nitrogen-fixing member of the Fabaceae which forms protein-rich tubers. To aid future domestication programs for this legume plant and facilitate evolutionary studies of tuber formation, we have generated a draft genome assembly based on Pacific Biosciences sequence reads.

Data Description: Genomic DNA from L.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The genus (type species ) was established in 1978 by Hennen and Ono and named after the Brazilian Cerrado biome. The holotype collected in Planaltina, Federal District, Brazil, belonged to the first rust fungus reported on palms (Arecaceae). For decades, the status of as a distinct genus has been regarded as doubtful, representing a synonym of (Uropyxidaceae) starting with the second edition of the in 1983.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Fungal communities in above-ground tree tissues are hyperdiverse and are influenced by biotic interactions with other organisms living in or on these tissues. These biotic interactions are, however, still poorly understood. In this study, we aimed to understand how insect-associated gall formation on foliage correlates with the diversity of foliar fungal communities in surrounding healthy leaf tissue, as well as the co-occurrence patterns among the members of the fungal community.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Sex chromosomes and mating-type chromosomes can display large genomic regions without recombination. Recombination suppression often extended stepwise with time away from the sex- or mating-type-determining genes, generating evolutionary strata of differentiation between alternative sex or mating-type chromosomes. In anther-smut fungi of the Microbotryum genus, recombination suppression evolved repeatedly, linking the two mating-type loci and extended multiple times in regions distal to the mating-type genes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Two hundred and forty-four ustilaginomycetous yeast or yeast-like strains were isolated from the soil, skin of animals or humans and plant materials during the past 20 years. Among them, 203 strains represent 39 known species, whereas 41 strains represent several novel species based on the sequence analyses of the rDNA genes [18S rDNA, Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) regions, 26S rDNA D1/D2 domain] and three protein genes (, and ). In this study, one new order, one new family, four new genera, twenty new species, and two new combinations were proposed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This article is the 14th in the Fungal Diversity Notes series, wherein we report 98 taxa distributed in two phyla, seven classes, 26 orders and 50 families which are described and illustrated. Taxa in this study were collected from Australia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chile, China, Cyprus, Egypt, France, French Guiana, India, Indonesia, Italy, Laos, Mexico, Russia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. There are 59 new taxa, 39 new hosts and new geographical distributions with one new combination.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This article is the 13th contribution in the Fungal Diversity Notes series, wherein 125 taxa from four phyla, ten classes, 31 orders, 69 families, 92 genera and three genera are treated, demonstrating worldwide and geographic distribution. Fungal taxa described and illustrated in the present study include three new genera, 69 new species, one new combination, one reference specimen and 51 new records on new hosts and new geographical distributions. Three new genera, (), ( genus ) and () are introduced based on distinct phylogenetic lineages and unique morphologies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The Tremellomycetes are a species-rich group within the basidiomycete fungi; however, most analyses of this group to date have focused on pathogenic Cryptococcus species within the order Tremellales. Recent genome-assisted studies of other Tremellomycetes have identified interesting features with respect to biotechnological applications as well as the evolution of genes involved in mating and sexual development. Here, we report genome sequences of two strains of Filobasidium floriforme, a species from the order Filobasidiales, which branches basally to the Tremellales, Trichosporonales, and Holtermanniales.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Here we review how evolving species concepts have been applied to understand yeast diversity. Initially, a phenotypic species concept was utilized taking into consideration morphological aspects of colonies and cells, and growth profiles. Later the biological species concept was added, which applied data from mating experiments.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Plants can be severely affected by insect herbivores and phytopathogenic fungi, but interactions between these plant antagonists are poorly understood. We analysed the impact of feeding damage by the abundant herbivore Orchestes fagi on infection rates of beech (Fagus sylvatica) leaves with Petrakia liobae, an invasive plant pathogenic fungus. The fungus was not detected in hibernating beetles, indicating that O.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Hybridization is a central mechanism in evolution, producing new species or introducing important genetic variation into existing species. In plant-pathogenic fungi, adaptation and specialization to exploit a host species are key determinants of evolutionary success. Here, we performed experimental crosses between the two pathogenic Microbotryum species, M.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Natural history collections are digitizing large volumes of specimens to enhance taxonomy as a big data science, but there’s a lack of focus on preserving the original data generated from naming thousands of new species each year.
  • A review of 4,113 alpha-taxonomic studies from recent years shows an increase in molecular data use for species identification, particularly in mycology and vertebrates, while usage remains low in botany and entomology.
  • Enhanced archiving strategies and energy-efficient storage formats are needed to better manage high-throughput data for taxonomic research, and there’s potential for machine-learning to improve the reuse of this data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Trees in the genus (previously ) are commonly infected by the gall-inducing rusts and . Rust galls bearing aecial infections and relating uredinial and telial infections on the leaves of nine species not previously recorded to be infected by spp. have recently been collected in South Africa.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF