An ascomycete H4 variant with an unknown function.

Histone variants leading to altered nucleosome structure, dynamics and DNA accessibility occur frequently, albeit rarely for H4. We carried out a comprehensive scrutiny of fungal genomes, which revealed the presence of a novel H4 variant (H4E) in the ascomycetes, throughout the Pezizomycotina, in basal species of the Taphrinomycotina and also in the Glomeromycota. The coding cognate genes show a specific intron/exon organization, different from H4 canonical genes.

Generation, Transfer, and Loss of Alternative Oxidase Paralogues in the Family.

Alternative oxidase (Aox) is a terminal oxidase operating in branched electron transport. The activity correlates positively with overflow metabolisms in certain , converting intracellular glucose by the shortest possible path into organic acids, like citrate or itaconate. Aox is nearly ubiquitous in fungi, but gene multiplicity is rare.

Hybrid Cultivars with American or Asian Ancestries Show Higher Tolerance towards Grapevine Trunk Diseases.

Grape production worldwide is increasingly threatened by grapevine trunk diseases (GTDs). No grapevine cultivar is known to be entirely resistant to GTDs, but susceptibility varies greatly. To quantify these differences, four Hungarian grape germplasm collections containing 305 different cultivars were surveyed to determine the ratios of GTDs based on symptom expression and the proportion of plant loss within all GTD symptoms.

A complete nicotinate degradation pathway in the microbial eukaryote Aspergillus nidulans.

Several strikingly different aerobic and anaerobic pathways of nicotinate breakdown are extant in bacteria. Here, through reverse genetics and analytical techniques we elucidated in Aspergillus nidulans, a complete eukaryotic nicotinate utilization pathway. The pathway extant in this fungus and other ascomycetes, is quite different from bacterial ones.