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January 2019 Pre-order revised edition Laboratory Manual now |
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Tracing the fungal carbon metabolic roadmap in Aspergillus niger
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Thesis reveals tricks of dung fungus Podospora anserina and tropical fungus Trichoderma reesei
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Interesting thesis on the biology of black yeasts
Leandro focuses on the order Chaetothyriales
(Pezizomycotina, Ascomycetes). Members of this order ‘exhibit a complex
ecological variation, and species are found in habitats characterised by
extreme and adverse conditions, like rock surfaces in hot arid climates, in
toxic niches with hydrocarbons and heavy metals and remarkably often in
vertebrates as opportunistic pathogens.’
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Comprehensive study of Banana & Fusarium wilt in Indonesia
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A study of fungal-based wood finishes
The discovery had already been made almost 20 years ago, by chance, by researcher Michael Sailer who investigated whether vegetable oil can conserve wood. He discovered that pieces of coniferous wood impregnated with linseed oil and hemp oil turned black after being exposed to wind and weather. But the discolored wood did not become soft, like rotten wood, it remained hard. The wood was possibly protected by the black layer, which the microscope showed to be fungus.
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Thickest thesis of Westerdijk PhD ever: ‘Mycospaerellaceae revisited’
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Volume 92 of Studies in Mycology (March 2019) is now available.
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Volume 9(2) of IMA Fungus
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The manual
provides an introductory text to systematic mycology, starting with a concise
treatise of Hyphochytridiomycota and Oomycota, which have long been subject
of study by mycologists, but are now classified in the Kingdom Chromista. These are followed by
sections on the groups of “true fungi”: Chytridiomycota,
Blastocladiomycota, “Zygomycota”, Ascomycota and Basidiomycota. This descriptive part is illustrated by numerous
full-colour figures of life-cycles and schematic line-drawings as well as
photographic plates depicting most of the structures essential for the study
and identification of these fungi. Special attention is given to basic
principles of working with axenic cultures, good morphological analysis, and
complicated issues for beginners such as conidiogenesis and the understanding
of life-cycles. Exemplar taxa for each of these fungal groups, in total 69
mostly common species in various economically important genera, are described
and illustrated in detail. In a chapter on general methods a number of basic
techniques such as the preparation and choice of media, microscopic
examination, the use of stains and preparation of permanent slides, and
herbarium techniques are explained. Most importantly, this volume also sees the
integration of asexual and sexual genera, following the abandonment of dual
nomenclature for Fungi. Further
chapters deal with commonly used molecular and phylogenetic methods and related
identification tools such as BLAST and DNA Barcoding, fungal nomenclature,
ecological groups of fungi such as soil-borne and root-inhabiting fungi, water
moulds, and fungi on plants and of quarantine importance. Some topics of
applied mycology are also treated, including fungi in the air- and indoor
environment and fungi of medical importance. Common mycological terminology is
explained in a glossary, with reference to illustrations in the book. A chapter
providing more than 60 mycological media for fungal cultivation, and a comprehensive
list of cited references are also provided. The book is concluded with an
index, and dendrogram reflecting our current understanding of the evolutionary
relationships within the Fungi.
Maria Victoria Aguilar Pontes is interested in genetics, in
metabolic pathways, in bioinformatics. And she also likes the idea of applied
research. In her case the combination of all these interests led to research on
the metabolism of Aspergillus niger and not, for example to human research. ‘I don’t like human research, I don’t
like to work with human data. Besides that: I really like fungi, they look beautiful,
you don’t have to feed them every day and you don’t have to feel guilty if you
kill them. What I want to do in my research is to improve industrial processes
by using fungal enzymes while studying A.
niger primary metabolism as a whole. ’
As part of a research project initiated by prof. Ronald de
Vries to understand fungal biodiversity with respect to plant biomass
degradation and to design a model that enables the prediction of the ability of
fungal species to utilize different carbon sources, Tiziano Benocci dissected
plant biomass utilization strategies of a specialist (Podospora anserina) and a semi-specialist (Trichoderma reesei).
Leandro Moreno successfully defended his PhD Thesis on
Thursday November 15 at the University of Amsterdam, with the title ‘The biology of black yeast genomes’. It is
an interesting mix of factual and extensive explorations of the genomic
diversity in black yeasts and relatives, with some more speculative chapters,
like the intriguing question on understanding an infectious brain disease from
the desert.
‘A complex
relationship, Banana & Fusarium wilt in Indonesia’ is the full title of the
thesis of Nani Maryani, and complex it is. Nani comes from Indonesia, the
centre of origin of banana and thus, from the co-evolutionary standpoint also
the centre of origin of major pathogens threatening the crop. She is the first
person to make a comprehensive study of sympatric speciation of Fusarium spp. pathogenic on bananas in
Indonesia. 
A fungus
that does not attack wood, but preserves it. It sounds strange, but it is
possible. Elke van Nieuwenhuijzen received her doctorate on Wednesday 7
November at Eindhoven University of Technology for her study of black fungi on
oiled wood that behave like a 'biofinish'. This layer colors the wood and
protects it from wood rot and degradation by sunlight. An additional advantage:
the fungus automatically repairs damage in the protective layer.
Sandra I.R. Videira studied biology in Coimbra in Portugal
before she came for her PHD to the Netherlands.. Since her MSc she fell in love
with fungi. That fact is mentioned by Pedro Crous in his Judicium today: ‘You
started with studying the ecology and management of commercially harvested
macrofungi like Tricholoma flavovirens in Portugal. It is funny that this
mushroom is commercially harvested in Portugal, while in Dutch Mycology books
this fungus is documented as being doubtful to eat. You then studied the
biodiversity of microfungi occurring on historical documents by molecular tools
and evaluated whether they could be controlled by gamma radiation. With all
this expertise you were the favourite candidate for a PhD project at the
Westerdijk Institute.’ 
This issue includes seven research papers
that deal with several important genera of fungal plant pathogens. Damm et al. revise the Colletotrichum dracaenophilum, C.
magnum and C. orchidearum species
complexes, introducing 12 new species. Marin-Felix et al. revise 20 genera of phytopathogenic fungi, introducing 26
new species. Vu et al. release an
unprecedented large number of DNA barcodes for Fungi, namely 24 000 DNA barcode
sequences of 12 000 ex-type and manually validated filamentous fungal strains of
7 300 accepted species. Furthermore, the optimal identity thresholds to
discriminate filamentous fungal species were predicted as 99.6 % for ITS and
99.8 % for LSU. Maryani et al. deal
with the complex issue of Panama disease of banana, and formally name 11 new
species, introducing Fusarium
odoratissimum for what was formally known as Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc), the causal agent of Fusarium wilt or Panama disease on banana. Fehrer et al. present a phylogenetic study of
the prominent ericoid mycorrhizal fungus Rhizoscyphus
ericae. Giraldo & Crous treat the Plectosphaerellaceae,
and resolve 22 genera in the family, including 12 new genera, 15 new species
and 10 new combinations. Liu et al.
treat the Sporocadaceae, finally
adding DNA sequence data to many genera of appendaged coelomycetes, resolving
23 known and introducing seven new genera and 51 new species.
After nine
years, Volume 9(2) of IMA Fungus also sees the final volume of the official journal of the International Mycological Association produced by the Westerdijk Institute. This volume contains several subsections,
including the Editorial, News, Reports, Awards and Personalia, Research News,
MycoLens, Correspondence, Book News, Forthcoming Meetings, and a set of 10
research papers, covering the breadth of mycology (|
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© Copyright 2019 Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute.
