10 results match your criteria: "Vivekananda Institute of Tropical Mycology (VINSTROM)[Affiliation]"

Fungi that inhabit fire-prone forests have to be adapted to harsh conditions and fungi affiliated to Ascomycota recovered from foliar litter samples were used for bioprospecting of molecules such as enzymes. Agni's fungi isolated from leaf litter, whose spores are capable of tolerating 110 C were screened for thermostable lipases. One of the isolates, Leptosphaerulina trifolii A SMR-2011 exhibited high positive lipase activity than other isolates while screening through agar plate assay using Tween 20 in the medium.

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Leaf photosynthesis: do endophytes have a say?

Trends Plant Sci

October 2022

Department of Bioscience and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Jammu 181 221, India.

Endophytes, both bacterial and fungal, constitute an integral component of the leaf ecosystem. Here we argue that the respiratory metabolism of endophytes in the intercellular spaces of leaves could have a significant role in enhancing leaf photosynthesis by enriching the internal CO concentration, especially in C3 plants.

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Endophytic fungi in plant tissues produce a wide range of secondary metabolites and enzymes, which exhibit a variety of biological activities. In the present study, litter endophytic fungi were isolated from a fire-prone forest and screened for thermostable cellulases. Among nine endophytic fungi tested, two isolates, Bartalinia pondoensis and Phoma sp.

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Endophytes are non-disease causing microbes (bacteria and fungi) surviving in living tissues of plants. Their intimate association and possible coevolution with their plant partners have resulted in them contributing to an array of plant growth benefits ranging from enhanced growth and biomass accumulation, tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses and in nutrient acquisition. The last couple of decades have witnessed a burgeoning literature on the role of endophytes (Class 3 type) in regulating plant growth and development and their adaptation to abiotic and biotic stresses.

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A total of 389 strains of fungi belonging to 38 species were isolated from 10 lichen species of the Western Ghats, southern India. All the lichens screened, irrespective of their growth forms or location, harboured endolichenic fungi. Most of the fungi belonged to the Ascomycotina.

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Ionic liquids (ILs) are used in lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) pretreatment because of their ability to disrupt the extensive hydrogen-bonding network in cellulose and hemicellulose, and thereby decrease LCB recalcitrance to subsequent enzymatic degradation. However, this approach necessitates the development of cellulases and hemicellulases that can tolerate ∼20% (w/v) IL, an amount that either co-precipitates with the sugar polymers after the initial pretreatment or is typically used in single-pot biomass deconstructions. By investigating the secretomes from 4 marine-derived fungal endophytes, we identified a β-xylosidase derived from Trichoderma harzianum as the most promising in terms of tolerating 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium-dimethyl phosphate (EMIM-DMP), an IL.

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Chitin is one of the most abundant biomolecules on earth, and its partially de-N-acetylated counterpart, chitosan, is one of the most promising biotechnological resources due to its diversity in structure and function. Recently, chitin and chitosan modifying enzymes (CCMEs) have gained increasing interest as tools to engineer chitosans with specific functions and reliable performance in biotechnological and biomedical applications. In a search for novel CCME, we isolated chitinolytic and chitosanolytic microorganisms from soils with more than ten-years history of chitin and chitosan exposure and screened them for chitinase and chitosanase isoenzymes as well as for their patterns of oligomeric products by incubating their secretomes with chitosan polymers.

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Fungal endosymbionts of seaweeds.

Prog Mol Subcell Biol

April 2016

Vivekananda Institute of Tropical Mycology (VINSTROM), Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, Chennai, 600004, India,

Seaweeds are being studied for their role in supporting coastal marine life and nutrient cycling and for their bioactive metabolites. For a more complete understanding of seaweed communities, it is essential to obtain information about their interactions with various other components of their ecosystem. While interactions of seaweeds with herbivores such as fish and mesograzers and surface colonizers such as bacteria and microalgae are known, their interactions with marine and marine-derived fungi are little understood.

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Article Synopsis
  • This study investigates the heat tolerance of mesophilic fungi spores from a tropical semi-arid area in the Western Ghats of southern India, particularly after exposure to high temperatures that mimic dry season fires.
  • Nine out of 25 isolated fungal species showed the ability to grow after being heated at 100°C for 2 hours, with some even surviving temperatures up to 115°C, indicating an unusual level of thermotolerance.
  • The findings suggest that these fungi likely developed adaptations to withstand fires, which could have implications for understanding fungal resilience and the evolution of heat-resistant pathogens in a warming climate.
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The species diversity and distribution of 3 ecological groups of fungi (viz., foliar endophytes, phellophytes, and leaf litter fungi of 6 tree hosts of a dry thorn forest and 6 tree hosts of an evergreen forest of southern India) were studied. As the methods of sampling and the isolation procedure were maintained constant, the results could be compared across hosts and fungal assemblages.

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