Regulation of nutrient utilization in filamentous fungi.

Organisms must accurately sense and respond to nutrients to survive. In filamentous fungi, accurate nutrient sensing is important in the establishment of fungal colonies and in continued, rapid growth for the exploitation of environmental resources. To ensure efficient nutrient utilization, fungi have evolved a combination of activating and repressing genetic networks to tightly regulate metabolic pathways and distinguish between preferred nutrients, which require minimal energy and resources to utilize, and nonpreferred nutrients, which have more energy-intensive catabolic requirements.

An Alanine Aminotransferase Is Required for Biofilm-Specific Resistance of Aspergillus fumigatus to Echinocandin Treatment.

Alanine metabolism has been suggested as an adaptation strategy to oxygen limitation in organisms ranging from plants to mammals. Within the pulmonary infection microenvironment, Aspergillus fumigatus forms biofilms with steep oxygen gradients defined by regions of oxygen limitation. An alanine aminotransferase, AlaA, was observed to function in alanine catabolism and is required for several aspects of A.

Aspergillus fumigatus biofilms: Toward understanding how growth as a multicellular network increases antifungal resistance and disease progression.

Aspergillus fumigatus is a saprophytic, filamentous fungus found in soils and compost and the causative agent of several pulmonary diseases in humans, birds, and other mammals. A. fumigatus and other filamentous fungi grow as networks of filamentous hyphae that have characteristics of a classic microbial biofilm.

Aspergillus fumigatus Strain-Specific Conidia Lung Persistence Causes an Allergic Broncho-Pulmonary Aspergillosis-Like Disease Phenotype.

is a filamentous fungus which can cause multiple diseases in humans. Allergic broncho-pulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) is a disease diagnosed primarily in cystic fibrosis patients caused by a severe allergic response often to long-term colonization in the lungs. Mice develop an allergic response to repeated inhalation of spores; however, no strains have been identified that can survive long-term in the mouse lung and cause ABPA-like disease.

Analysis and modeling of environmental prevalence in Minnesota using soil collected to compare basal and outbreak levels.

Outbreaks of blastomycosis, caused by the fungus , occur in endemic areas of the United States and Canada but the geographic range of blastomycosis is expanding. Previous studies inferred the location of through epidemiologic data associated with outbreaks because culture of from the environment is often unsuccessful. In this study, we used a culture-independent, PCR-based method to identify DNA in environmental samples using the BAD1 promoter region.