Plant nucleoside N-ribohydrolases: riboside binding and role in nitrogen storage mobilization.

Cells save their energy during nitrogen starvation by selective autophagy of ribosomes and degradation of RNA to ribonucleotides and nucleosides. Nucleosides are hydrolyzed by nucleoside N-ribohydrolases (nucleosidases, NRHs). Subclass I of NRHs preferentially hydrolyzes the purine ribosides while subclass II is more active towards uridine and xanthosine.

Cryptococcus depauperatus, a close relative of the human-pathogen C. neoformans, associated with coffee leaf rust (Hemileia vastatrix) in Cameroon.

The genus Cryptococcus is well known for its two species -Cryptococcus neoformans and C. gatii- that are etiological agents of cryptococcosis, an important fungal disease of mammals, including humans, and which is particularly common in immunocompromised patients. Nevertheless, Cryptococcus is a large and widely distributed genus of basidiomycetes occupying a broad range of niches, including mycoparasitism.

Elucidating the interactions between the rust and a mycoparasite and the coffee plant.

, a fungus associated with pustules of the coffee leaf rust (CLR, ) in Brazil, was tested and to assess its biocontrol potential. The fungus inhibited the germination of rust spores by over 80%. CLR severity was reduced by 93% when was applied to coffee leaf discs inoculated with , whilst a reduction of 70-90% was obtained for experiments.

A fungus-eat-fungus world: Digitopodium, with particular reference to mycoparasites of the coffee leaf rust, Hemileia vastatrix.

Digitopodium hemileiae was described originally in 1930 as Cladosporium hemileiae; growing as a mycoparasite of the coffee leaf rust (CLR), Hemileia vastatrix, in a sample of diseased leaves of Coffea canephora collected in the Democratic Republic of Congo. No cultures from this material exist. More recently, the type material was re-examined and, based on morphological features, considered to be incorrectly placed in Cladosporium.