Publications by authors named "Carol Shearer"

With the advance to one scientific name for each fungal species, the generic names in the class Sordariomycetes typified by sexual and asexual morphs are evaluated based on their type species to determine if they compete with each other for use or protection. Recommendations are made for which of the competing generic names should be used based on criteria such as priority, number of potential names changes, and frequency of use. Some recommendations for well-known genera include Arthrinium over Apiospora, Colletotrichum over Glomerella, Menispora over Zignoëlla, Microdochium over Monographella, Nigrospora over Khuskia, and Plectosphaerella over Plectosporium.

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Minutisphaera is a recently established genus of freshwater Dothideomycetes characterized by small, globose to subglobose or apothecioid, erumpent to superficial, brown ascomata; fissitunicate, eight-spored, ovoid to obclavate asci; and 1-2-septate, clavate to broadly fusiform, hyaline to pale brown ascospores with or without a gelatinous sheath and filamentous appendages. The genus currently contains two species: M. fimbriatispora, the type species, and M.

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Fungi occupy an important ecological niche in the marine environment, and marine fungi possess an immense biotechnological potential. This study documents the fungal diversity associated with 39 species of sponges and determines their potential to produce secondary metabolites capable of interacting with mammalian G-protein-coupled receptors involved in blood pressure regulation. Total genomic DNA was extracted from 563 representative fungal strains obtained from marine sponges collected by SCUBA from the Caribbean and the Pacific regions of Panama.

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A survey of freshwater ascomycetes conducted along an elevational gradient in Perú in the Districts of Cusco, Junín, and Madre de Dios yielded specimens of Cancellidium applanatum, Cordana abramovii, Sporoschisma juvenile, S. uniseptatum, and S. saccardoi.

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During investigations of freshwater ascomycetes we found one interesting taxon from Aomori (Japan), as well as three additional taxa from North Carolina (USA), which were morphologically similar to Minutisphaera, a recently described freshwater fungus in the Dothideomycetes. The ascomata of all the collections bore dark hair-like structures around the ostiolar region, obovoid to obclavate bitunicate asci, and one to three septate hyaline to brown ascospores with a sheath (in material from Japan), and with both sheath and appendages (in material from the USA). The apothecial ascomata of these taxa, however, differ from those of the type species of the genus, which are perithecial.

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During independent surveys for freshwater ascomycetes in Brazil and Costa Rica, two new species, Torrentispora pilosa and Vertexicola ascoliberatus, and nine previously described species were recovered. Among the described species, Annulatascus biatriisporus, Anthostomella aquatica, Tamsiniella labiosa and Torrentispora crassiparietis are reported for the first time from the western hemisphere, Aniptodera chesapeakensis, Chaetosphaeria lignomollis and Jahnula seychellensis are new records for South America and Annulatascus velatisporus and Ophioceras venezuelensis are reported for the first time for Brazil. The description of the genus Torrentispora is emended to accommodate T.

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Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and the newly synthesized Alexa532-ET1 were used to study the dynamics of the endothelin ET(A) receptor-ligand complex alone and under the influence of a semisynthetic selective antagonist and a fungal extract on living A10 cells. Dose-dependent increase of inositol phosphate production was seen for Alexa532-ET1, and its binding was reduced to 8% by the selective endothelin ET(A) antagonist BQ-123, confirming the specific binding of Alexa532-ET1 to the endothelin ET(A) receptor. Two different lateral mobilities of the receptor-ligand complexes within the cell membrane were found allowing the discrimination of different states for this complex.

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Three new genera are established in the Sordariomycetidae based on morphological and molecular data (SSU and LSU nrDNA) to accommodate five ascomycete species collected from submerged woody debris in freshwater habitats from Costa Rica. The genus Bullimyces contains three new species, B. communis, B.

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A new ascomycete species, Natipusilla bellaspora, collected from submerged woody debris in a freshwater stream at Los Amigos Biological Station, Madre De Dios in the Peruvian Amazon is described and illustrated. This fungus is characterized by small, globose to subglobose, hyaline ascomata; small, globose to subglobose, eight-spored fissitunicate asci; one-septate, multiguttulate ascospores with two different gelatinous sheaths, an outer amorphous sheath that enlarges in water and an inner sheath that has a distinctive persistent shape and is attached to the ascospore apex. Morphologically N.

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During independent surveys of freshwater ascomycetes in Japan and USA two new species of Lindgomyces were collected from submerged wood in freshwater. These species are described and illustrated based on morphological data and phylogenetic relationships based on analyses of nuclear ribosomal sequence data (partial SSU and LSU, and ITS). Lindgomyces apiculatus, collected in Japan, is characterized by immersed to erumpent, globose to subglobose ascomata; fissitunicate, cylindrical to clavate asci; and fusiform, one-septate ascospores with acute ends and short terminal appendages.

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Two new genera are established in the Dothideomycetes based on morphological and molecular data (SSU and LSU nuclear ribosomal sequences) to accommodate four ascomycete species collected from woody debris submerged in freshwater habitats. The genus Minutisphaera is represented by a single species, M. fimbriatispora, which was collected from freshwater habitats in temperate forests in North America.

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Aquatic hyphomycete fungi are fundamental mediators of energy flow and nutrient spiraling in rivers. These microscopic fungi are primarily dispersed in river currents, undergo substantial annual fluctuations in abundance, and reproduce either predominantly or exclusively asexually. These aspects of aquatic hyphomycete biology are expected to influence levels and distributions of genetic diversity over both spatial and temporal scales.

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Massarina ingoldiana occurs worldwide on a variety of dead plant substrates in aquatic habitats. This species has been accommodated in Massarina or Lophiostoma in Pleosporales, Dothideomycetes, but the validity of either of these taxonomic placements has not been confirmed with molecular data. In addition morphological variations occur among different populations of this species causing problems in identification.

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Alascospora evergladensis, a freshwater ascomycete collected from submerged dead petioles of Nymphaea odorata during a survey of aquatic fungi along a phosphorus gradient in the Florida Everglades, is described and illustrated as a new genus and species in the Pleosporales (Pleosporomycetidae, Dothideomycetes). The new fungus is unique among genera in the Pleosporales based on a combination of morphological characters that include light brown, translucent, membranous, ostiolate ascomata with dark, amorphous material irregularly deposited on the peridium, especially around the ostiole; globose, fissitunicate, thick-walled asci; septate pseudoparaphyses; and 1-septate ascospores that are hyaline when young, and surrounded by a hyaline gelatinous sheath that is wing-shaped in outline on each side of the ascospore. The sheath is distinctive in that it first expands in water and is translucent, then condenses and darkens around older ascospores, giving them a dark brown, verruculose appearance.

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A new fungus collected from submerged wood in Costa Rica and Ecuador has ascostromatic ascomata with fissitunicate asci and lacks pseudoparaphyses, characters that place it in the Dothideaceae (Dothideales). It is unusual in the order because it has white ascomata. Based on other morphological characters however this fungus could not be accommodated in any existing genus in the Dothideaceae and it is described herein as a new genus and species, Lucidascocarpa pulchella.

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As part of a distributional study of freshwater ascomycetes in Florida, a number of new taxa were encountered. The new taxa include six Sordariomycetes, Aniptodera megaloascocarpa sp. nov.

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A new fungus collected from submerged wood in tropical forest streams in Panama and Thailand is described as a new genus and species in the Jahnulales. This fungus, Megalohypha aqua-dulces, is described based on ascospore morphology, which differs substantially from that of the other genera in the Jahnulales. It has these morphological features: ascomata hyaline, translucent, with subtending, wide, brown, septate, stoloniferous hyphae; peridium of large, thin-walled cells; hamathecium of septate pseudoparaphyses; asci clavate, fissitunicate, 8-spored; and ascospores 1-septate, brown, rough-walled, with longitudinal sulcate striations.

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Three pyrenomycetes collected from woody debris submerged in freshwater habitats are described as new species of Luttrellia: L. guttulata sp. nov.

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Decaspirones A-E (1-5), five new compounds related to the palmarumycins, were isolated from cultures of the freshwater aquatic fungal species Decaisnella thyridioides. The known compound palmarumycin CP1 (6) was also obtained. The structures of 1-5 were determined by analysis of NMR and MS data, and their relative configurations were assigned by analysis of 1H NMR J-values and NOESY data.

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The hypothesis that similar conidial morphologies in aquatic hyphomycetes are a result of convergent evolution was tested using molecular sequence data. Cladistic analyses were performed on partial sequences of 28S rDNA of seven species of Lemonniera, one species of Margaritispora and one species of Goniopila. Lemonniera has tetraradiate conidia with long arms, whereas Margaritispora and Goniopila have typically globose (isodiametric) conidia, with short conical protuberances in a stellate or quadrangular arrangement.

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[Structure: see text] Cultures of the freshwater aquatic fungus Helicodendron giganteum afforded three new compounds, heliconols A-C (1-3), that contain an unusual reduced furanocyclopentane unit. The structures of these metabolites were assigned by analysis of 1D and 2D NMR data. The absolute configuration of heliconol A (1) was assigned by single-crystal X-ray crystallographic analysis of its dibromobenzoate derivative.

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Four new altenuene derivatives called dihydroaltenuenes A (1) and B (2) and dehydroaltenuenes A (3) and B (4), along with five known compounds, including isoaltenuene (5), altenuene (6), and 5'-epialtenuene (7), were isolated from cultures of an unidentified freshwater aquatic fungal species in the family Tubeufiaceae. The structures of 1-4 were determined by analysis of NMR and MS data. The relative stereochemistry was determined on the basis of (1)H NMR J-values and NOE data, while the absolute configuration of a representative member of the group (5) was assigned by CD spectral analysis of its bis-N,N-dimethylaminobenzoate derivative.

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This revision of the classification of unicellular eukaryotes updates that of Levine et al. (1980) for the protozoa and expands it to include other protists. Whereas the previous revision was primarily to incorporate the results of ultrastructural studies, this revision incorporates results from both ultrastructural research since 1980 and molecular phylogenetic studies.

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Four new tetrahydropyran derivatives called ophiocerins A-D (1-4) and a new africane sesquiterpenoid (ophioceric acid; 5) have been isolated from cultures of the aquatic fungus Ophioceras venezuelense, together with the known compound regiolone. The structures and relative stereochemistry of these compounds were determined by analysis of 1D and 2D NMR data, while absolute stereochemical assignments for 1-4 were proposed by application of the exciton chirality CD method.

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Two pyrenomycetes in the Annulatascaceae described from freshwater, Annulatascus triseptatus and Ascolacicola austriaca, are reported from North and South America for the first time. Both species occur commonly on submerged wood in the U.S.

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