Gromochytrium mamkaevae gen. & sp. nov. and two new orders: Gromochytriales and Mesochytriales (Chytridiomycetes).

During the last decade several new orders were established in the class Chytridiomycetes on the basis of zoospore ultrastructure and molecular phylogeny. Here we present the ultrastructure and molecular phylogeny of strain x-51 CALU - a parasite of the alga Tribonema gayanum, originally described as Rhizophydium sp. based on light microscopy.

Obligately phagotrophic aphelids turned out to branch with the earliest-diverging fungi.

Reconstructing the early evolution of fungi and metazoans, two of the kingdoms of multicellular eukaryotes thriving on earth, is a challenging task for biologists. Among extant organisms having characters intermediate between fungi and hypothetical protistan ancestors, from which both fungi and metazoans are believed to have evolved, aphelids are unfairly neglected. The phylogenetic position of these microalgal endoparasites remained uncertain, since no nucleotide sequence data have been reported to date.

Study of Molecular Karyotypes in Amoeboaphelidium protococcarum,the Endotrophic Parasite of Chlorophycean alga Scenedesmus.

On the basis of the pulsed field gel electrophoresis(PFGE) technique, molecular karyotypes in Amoeboaphelidiumprotococcarum (the endotrophic parasite of chlorophycean algae, whichcombines protozoon- and fungus-type characters) were determined. Molecularkaryotypes in the strains X1, X5, and X31, which differ in the host range andoriginate from Western, Central, and Eastern Euro-Asia respectively,demonstrate the intrageneric polymorphism-from 7 to 13 chDNA bands-with theestimated molecular size of 0.3-2.

[Production of the antibiotic-algicide cyanobacterin LU-2 by a filamentous cyanobacterium Nostoc sp].

A strain of cyanobacterium of Nostoc has been isolated, and found to produce a new antibiotic cyanobacterin LU-2. The antibiotic is synthesized by the cyanobnacterium under intensive cultivation conditions in a liquid mineral medium. Cyanobacterin LU-2 is an exometabolite; its maximum accumulation in the medium is achieved at 34 degrees.