1.
Conidium
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Conidia, sometimes termed asexual chlamydospores, or chlamydoconidia are asexual, non-motile spores of a fungus, from the Greek word for dust, konis. They are also called mitospores due to the way they are generated through the process of mitosis. The two new cells are genetically identical to the haploid parent, and can develop into new organisms if conditions are favorable. Asexual reproduction in Ascomycetes is by the formation of conidia, which are borne on specialized stalks called conidiophores, the morphology of these specialized conidiophores is often distinctive of a specific species and can therefore be used in identification of the species. The terms microconidia and macroconidia are sometimes used, a conidium may form germ tubes and/or conidial anastomosis tubes in specific conditions. These two are some of the hyphae that are formed by fungal conidia. The germ tubes will grow to form the hyphae and fungal mycelia, the conidial anastomosis tubes are morphologically and physiologically distinct from germ tubes. After conidia are induced to form conidial anastomosis tubes, they grow homing toward each other, once fusion happens, the nuclei can pass through fused CATs. These are events of fungal growth and not sexual reproduction. Fusion between these cells seems to be important for some fungi during early stages of colony establishment, the production of these cells has been suggested to occur in 73 different species of fungi. Conidiogenesis is an important mechanism of spread of plant pathogens, one of these structures is called a conidioma. Two important types of conidiomata, distinguished by their form, are, pycnidia, which are flask-shaped, and acervuli, pycnidial conidiomata or pycnidia form in the fungal tissue itself, and are shaped like a bulging vase. The spores are released through an opening at the apex. Mostly they develop a layer of relatively short conidiophores which then produce masses of spores. The increasing pressure leads to the splitting of the epidermis and cuticle, Conidia are always present in the air, but levels fluctuate from day to day and with the seasons. An average person inhales 40 conidia per hour, Conidia are often the method by which some normally harmless but heat-tolerating, common fungi establish infection in certain types of severely immunocompromised patients. Their immune system is not strong enough to fight off the fungus, arthroconidium Asexual reproduction Ascocarp Basidiocarp Chlamydospore Gemma Phialide Conidia
2.
Taxonomy (biology)
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Taxonomy is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the remains, the conception, naming. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxonomy, the broadest meaning of taxonomy is used here. The word taxonomy was introduced in 1813 by Candolle, in his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, the term alpha taxonomy is primarily used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species. In earlier literature, the term had a different meaning, referring to morphological taxonomy, ideals can, it may be said, never be completely realized. They have, however, a value of acting as permanent stimulants. Some of us please ourselves by thinking we are now groping in a beta taxonomy, turrill thus explicitly excludes from alpha taxonomy various areas of study that he includes within taxonomy as a whole, such as ecology, physiology, genetics, and cytology. He further excludes phylogenetic reconstruction from alpha taxonomy, thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined beta taxonomy as the classification of ranks higher than species. This activity is what the term denotes, it is also referred to as beta taxonomy. How species should be defined in a group of organisms gives rise to practical and theoretical problems that are referred to as the species problem. The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called microtaxonomy, by extension, macrotaxonomy is the study of groups at higher taxonomic ranks, from subgenus and above only, than species. While some descriptions of taxonomic history attempt to date taxonomy to ancient civilizations, earlier works were primarily descriptive, and focused on plants that were useful in agriculture or medicine. There are a number of stages in scientific thinking. Early taxonomy was based on criteria, the so-called artificial systems. Later came systems based on a complete consideration of the characteristics of taxa, referred to as natural systems, such as those of de Jussieu, de Candolle and Bentham. The publication of Charles Darwins Origin of Species led to new ways of thinking about classification based on evolutionary relationships and this was the concept of phyletic systems, from 1883 onwards. This approach was typified by those of Eichler and Engler, the advent of molecular genetics and statistical methodology allowed the creation of the modern era of phylogenetic systems based on cladistics, rather than morphology alone. Taxonomy has been called the worlds oldest profession, and naming and classifying our surroundings has likely been taking place as long as mankind has been able to communicate
3.
Fungus
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A fungus is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, Fungi, which is separate from the other eukaryotic life kingdoms of plants, a characteristic that places fungi in a different kingdom from plants, bacteria and some protists, is chitin in their cell walls. Similar to animals, fungi are heterotrophs, they acquire their food by absorbing dissolved molecules, growth is their means of mobility, except for spores, which may travel through the air or water. Fungi are the principal decomposers in ecological systems and this fungal group is distinct from the structurally similar myxomycetes and oomycetes. The discipline of biology devoted to the study of fungi is known as mycology, in the past, mycology was regarded as a branch of botany, although it is now known fungi are genetically more closely related to animals than to plants. Abundant worldwide, most fungi are inconspicuous because of the size of their structures. Fungi include symbionts of plants, animals, or other fungi and they may become noticeable when fruiting, either as mushrooms or as molds. Fungi perform a role in the decomposition of organic matter and have fundamental roles in nutrient cycling. Since the 1940s, fungi have been used for the production of antibiotics, Fungi are also used as biological pesticides to control weeds, plant diseases and insect pests. Many species produce bioactive compounds called mycotoxins, such as alkaloids and polyketides, the fruiting structures of a few species contain psychotropic compounds and are consumed recreationally or in traditional spiritual ceremonies. Fungi can break down manufactured materials and buildings, and become significant pathogens of humans, losses of crops due to fungal diseases or food spoilage can have a large impact on human food supplies and local economies. The fungus kingdom encompasses a diversity of taxa with varied ecologies, life cycle strategies. However, little is known of the biodiversity of Kingdom Fungi. Advances in molecular genetics have opened the way for DNA analysis to be incorporated into taxonomy, phylogenetic studies published in the last decade have helped reshape the classification within Kingdom Fungi, which is divided into one subkingdom, seven phyla, and ten subphyla. The English word fungus is directly adopted from the Latin fungus, used in the writings of Horace, a group of all the fungi present in a particular area or geographic region is known as mycobiota, e. g. the mycobiota of Ireland. Like plants, fungi grow in soil and, in the case of mushrooms, form conspicuous fruit bodies. The fungi are now considered a kingdom, distinct from both plants and animals, from which they appear to have diverged around one billion years ago. Fungi have membrane-bound cytoplasmic organelles such as mitochondria, sterol-containing membranes and they have a characteristic range of soluble carbohydrates and storage compounds, including sugar alcohols, disaccharides, and polysaccharides
4.
Ascomycota
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Ascomycota is a division or phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, form the subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes. They are the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species, the defining feature of this fungal group is the ascus, a microscopic sexual structure in which nonmotile spores, called ascospores, are formed. However, some species of the Ascomycota are asexual, meaning that they do not have a sexual cycle, the ascomycetes are a monophyletic group, i. e. it contains all descendants of one common ancestor. Familiar examples of sac fungi include morels, truffles, brewers yeast and bakers yeast, dead mans fingers, the fungal symbionts in the majority of lichens such as Cladonia belong to the Ascomycota. There are many plant-pathogenic ascomycetes, including apple scab, rice blast, the fungi, black knot. Several species of ascomycetes are biological model organisms in laboratory research, most famously, Neurospora crassa, several species of yeasts, and Aspergillus species are used in many genetics and cell biology studies. Penicillium species on cheeses and those producing antibiotics for treating infectious diseases are examples of taxa that belong to the Ascomycota. They are fungi which produce microscopic spores inside special, elongated cells or sacs, known as asci, Asexual reproduction, Asexual reproduction is the dominant form of propagation in the Ascomycota, and is responsible for the rapid spread of these fungi into new areas. Asexual reproduction of ascomycetes is very diverse from both structural and functional points of view, the most important and general is production of conidia, but chlamydospores are also frequently produced. Furthermore, Ascomycota also reproduce asexually through budding, 1) Conidia formation, Asexual reproduction may occur through vegetative reproductive spores, the conidia. Asexual, non-motile haploid spore of a fungus, which is named after the Greek word for dust, conia and they are typically formed at the ends of specialized hyphae, the conidiophores. Depending on the species they may be dispersed by wind or water, conidiophores may simply branch off from the mycelia or they may be formed in fruiting bodies. The hypha that creates the sporing tip can be similar to the normal hyphal tip. The most common differentiation is the formation of a bottle shaped cell called a phialide, as all of these asexual structures are not single hyphae. In some groups, the conidiophores are aggregated to form a thick structure, in the order Moniliales, all of them are single hyphae with the exception of the aggregations, termed as coremia or synnema. These produce structures rather like corn-stokes, with many conidia being produced in a mass from the aggregated conidiophores, the diverse conidia and conidiophores sometimes develop in asexual sporocarps with different characteristics. Some species of Ascomycetes form their structures within plant tissue, either as parasite or saprophytes and these fungi have evolved more complex asexual sporing structures, probably influenced by the cultural conditions of plant tissue as a substrate
5.
Eurotiomycetes
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The Eurotiomycetes are a class of ascomycetes within the subphylum Pezizomycotina. Some members of the Eurotiomycetes were previously grouped in the class Plectomycetes, the scientific classification for this particular class is particularly tricky, with one particular species having both the anamorph, and teleomorph names used in reference to them. E. g. anamorph form = Penicillium, teleomorph form = Talaromyces or Eupenicillium, many members produce an enclosed structure cleistothecium within which they produce their spores
6.
Trichocomaceae
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The Trichocomaceae are a family of fungi in the order Eurotiales. Taxa are saprobes with aggressive colonization strategies, adaptable to extreme environmental conditions, family members are cosmopolitan in distribution, ubiquitous in soil, and common associates of decaying plant and food material. The family contains some of the most familiar fungi, such as Penicillium,456 pp. Pitt JL, Samson RA, Frisvad JC. List of accepted species and their synonyms in the family Trichocomaceae, integration of Modern Taxonomic Methods for Penicillium and Aspergillus Classification, 9–49. Media related to Trichocomaceae at Wikimedia Commons Data related to Trichocomaceae at Wikispecies
7.
Pier Antonio Micheli
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He discovered the spores of mushrooms, was a leading authority on cryptogams, and coined several important genera of microfungi including Aspergillus and Botrytis. Micheli was born in Florence in 1679, according to a short description from the libraries of Harvard University, he taught himself Latin and began the study of plants at a young age under Bruno Tozzi. In 1706 he was appointed botanist to Cosimo III de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, director of the Florence gardens, and his Nova plantarum genera was a major step in the knowledge of fungi. In this work, he gave descriptions of 1900 plants, of which about 1400 were described for the first time, among these were 900 fungi and lichens, accompanied by 73 plates. He included information on the planting, origin and growth of fungi, mucors, and allied plants and his work was met with skepticism by other botanists of the time. He also formulated a systematic classification system with keys for genera and he was a collector of plant and mineral specimens, and on one of his collecting trips, in 1736, he contracted pleurisy, of which he soon after died in Florence. Moselio Schaechter, Pier Antonio Micheli, The father of mycology, A paean. In 1737, Linnaeus called the genus Michelia after him, via Micheli, Florence, home of the Orto Botanico di Firenze, is named in his honor
8.
Species
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In biology, a species is the basic unit of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is defined as the largest group of organisms in which two individuals can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. While this definition is often adequate, looked at more closely it is problematic, for example, with hybridisation, in a species complex of hundreds of similar microspecies, or in a ring species, the boundaries between closely related species become unclear. Other ways of defining species include similarity of DNA, morphology, all species are given a two-part name, a binomial. The first part of a binomial is the genus to which the species belongs, the second part is called the specific name or the specific epithet. For example, Boa constrictor is one of four species of the Boa genus, Species were seen from the time of Aristotle until the 18th century as fixed kinds that could be arranged in a hierarchy, the great chain of being. In the 19th century, biologists grasped that species could evolve given sufficient time, Charles Darwins 1859 book The Origin of Species explained how species could arise by natural selection. Genes can sometimes be exchanged between species by horizontal transfer, and species may become extinct for a variety of reasons. In his biology, Aristotle used the term γένος to mean a kind, such as a bird or fish, a kind was distinguished by its attributes, for instance, a bird has feathers, a beak, wings, a hard-shelled egg, and warm blood. A form was distinguished by being shared by all its members, Aristotle believed all kinds and forms to be distinct and unchanging. His approach remained influential until the Renaissance, when observers in the Early Modern period began to develop systems of organization for living things, they placed each kind of animal or plant into a context. Many of these early delineation schemes would now be considered whimsical, animals likewise that differ specifically preserve their distinct species permanently, one species never springs from the seed of another nor vice versa. In the 18th century, the Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus classified organisms according to shared physical characteristics and he established the idea of a taxonomic hierarchy of classification based upon observable characteristics and intended to reflect natural relationships. At the time, however, it was widely believed that there was no organic connection between species, no matter how similar they appeared. However, whether or not it was supposed to be fixed, by the 19th century, naturalists understood that species could change form over time, and that the history of the planet provided enough time for major changes. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, in his 1809 Zoological Philosophy, described the transmutation of species, proposing that a species could change over time, in 1859, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace provided a compelling account of evolution and the formation of new species. Darwin argued that it was populations that evolved, not individuals and this required a new definition of species. Darwin concluded that species are what appear to be, ideas
9.
Genus
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A genus is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms in biology. In the hierarchy of classification, genus comes above species. In binomial nomenclature, the name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the genus. Felis catus and Felis silvestris are two species within the genus Felis, Felis is a genus within the family Felidae. The composition of a genus is determined by a taxonomist, the standards for genus classification are not strictly codified, so different authorities often produce different classifications for genera. Moreover, genera should be composed of units of the same kind as other genera. The term comes from the Latin genus, a noun form cognate with gignere, linnaeus popularized its use in his 1753 Species Plantarum, but the French botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort is considered the founder of the modern concept of genera. The scientific name of a genus may be called the name or generic epithet. It plays a role in binomial nomenclature, the system of naming organisms. The rules for the names of organisms are laid down in the Nomenclature Codes. The standard way of scientifically describing species and other lower-ranked taxa is by binomial nomenclature, the generic name forms its first half. For example, the gray wolfs binomial name is Canis lupus, with Canis being the name shared by the wolfs close relatives. The specific name is written in lower-case and may be followed by names in zoology or a variety of infraspecific names in botany. Especially with these names, when the generic name is known from context. Because animals are typically only grouped within subspecies, it is written as a trinomen with a third name. Dog breeds, meanwhile, are not scientifically distinguished, there are several divisions of plant species and therefore their infraspecific names generally include contractions explaining the relation. For example, the genus Hibiscus includes hundreds of other species apart from the Rose of Sharon or common garden hibiscus, Rose of Sharon doesnt have subspecies but has cultivars that carry desired traits, such as the bright white H. syriaca Diana. Hawaiian hibiscus, meanwhile, includes several separate species, since not all botanists agree on the divisions or names between species, it is common to specify the source of the name using author abbreviations
10.
Mold
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A mold or mould is a fungus that grows in the form of multicellular filaments called hyphae. In contrast, fungi that can adopt a single-celled growth habit are called yeasts, molds are a large and taxonomically diverse number of fungal species in which the growth of hyphae results in discoloration and a fuzzy appearance, especially on food. The network of these tubular branching hyphae, called a mycelium, is considered a single organism, the hyphae are generally transparent, so the mycelium appears like very fine, fluffy white threads over the surface. Cross-walls may delimit connected compartments along the hyphae, each containing one or multiple, the dusty texture of many molds is caused by profuse production of asexual spores formed by differentiation at the ends of hyphae. The mode of formation and shape of spores is traditionally used to classify molds. Many of these spores are colored, making the much more obvious to the human eye at this stage in its life-cycle. Molds are considered to be microbes and do not form a taxonomic or phylogenetic grouping. In the past, most molds were classified within the Deuteromycota, molds cause biodegradation of natural materials, which can be unwanted when it becomes food spoilage or damage to property. They also play important roles in biotechnology and food science in the production of foods, beverages, antibiotics, pharmaceuticals. There are thousands of species of molds, which have diverse life-styles including saprotrophs, mesophiles, psychrophiles and thermophiles. They all require moisture for growth and some live in aquatic environments, like all fungi, molds derive energy not through photosynthesis but from the organic matter on which they live, utilising heterotrophy. Typically, molds secrete hydrolytic enzymes, mainly from the hyphal tips and these enzymes degrade complex biopolymers such as starch, cellulose and lignin into simpler substances which can be absorbed by the hyphae. In this way molds play a role in causing decomposition of organic material. Many molds also synthesise mycotoxins and siderophores which, together with lytic enzymes, molds can also grow on stored food for animals and humans, making the food unpalatable or toxic and are thus a major source of food losses and illness. Many strategies for food preservation are to prevent or slow growth as well as growth of other microbes. Molds reproduce by producing large numbers of spores, which may contain a single nucleus or be multinucleate. Mold spores can be asexual or sexual, many species can produce both types, other mold spores have slimy sheaths and are more suited to water dispersal. Mold spores are spherical or ovoid single cells, but can be multicellular
11.
Aspergillum
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An aspergillum is a liturgical implement used to sprinkle holy water. It comes in two forms, a brush that is dipped in the water and shaken, and a silver ball on a stick. Some have sponges or internal reservoirs that dispense holy water when shaken, an aspergillum is used in Roman Catholic and Anglican ceremonies, including the Rite of Baptism and during the Easter Season. In addition, a priest will use the aspergillum to bless the candles during candlemas services, at a requiem, if a coffin is present, the priest will sprinkle holy water on the coffin. The aspergillum can be used in other manners where sprinkling of water is appropriate, as in a house blessing. The name derives from the Latin verb aspergere to sprinkle, the form of the aspergillum differs in the Eastern Orthodox Church. In the Greek Orthodox Church the aspergillum is in the form of a vessel with a tapering lid. The top of the lid has holes in it from which the agiasmos is sprinkled, in the Russian Orthodox Church the aspergillum is in the form of a whisk made of cloth or hair. Sometimes, sprigs of basil are used to sprinkle holy water, in some of the Oriental Orthodox Churches, no aspergillum is used, but the priest will pour holy water into the palm of his right hand and throw it on the faithful. ‘And the priest goes out of the camp and the priest looks, ‘And the priest commands, and takes, for the one healed, two unblemished live birds, cedar wood, Coccus scarlet, and hyssop. ’5. ‘And the priest commands, and slaughters the one bird in a pottery vessel upon living water. ’6. ‘He takes the live bird and the wood and the Coccus scarlet and the hyssop and dips them. ‘And sprinkle seven times upon him purified of leprosy, and he is purified, and sends the live bird upon the face of the field. ”“Of the cedar wood, hyssop, clean bird, and scarlet wool or fillet, were made an aspergillum, or instrument to sprinkle with. The cedar wood served for the handle, the hyssop and living bird were attached to it, the bird was so bound to this handle, as that its tail should be downwards, in order to be dipped in the blood of the bird that had been killed. The whole of this made an instrument for the sprinkling of blood, and when this business was done, the living bird was let loose, and permitted to go whithersoever it would. ”Over running water] Literally, living. The meaning appears to be this, some water was taken from a spring, and put in an earthen vessel, and they killed the bird over this water. I p.529 “The unusual ceremony in 14, 2-9 reflects an idea that linked physical illness with a winged evil demon. The priest, as arbiter in the matter, met the persons outside the camp
12.
Aerobic organism
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An aerobic organism or aerobe is an organism that can survive and grow in an oxygenated environment. In contrast, an organism is any organism that does not require oxygen for growth. Some anaerobes react negatively or even die if oxygen is present, obligate aerobes need oxygen to grow. In a process known as respiration, these organisms use oxygen to oxidize substrates. Facultative anaerobes use oxygen if it is available, but also have anaerobic methods of energy production, microaerophiles require oxygen for energy production, but are harmed by atmospheric concentrations of oxygen. Aerotolerant anaerobes do not use oxygen but are not harmed by it, a good example is the oxidation of glucose in aerobic respiration. C6H12O6 +6 O2 +38 ADP +38 phosphate →6 CO2 +6 H2O +38 ATP Oxygen is used during the oxidation of glucose and water is produced. This equation is a summary of what happens in three series of reactions, glycolysis, the Krebs cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation. Aerobic digestion Anaerobic digestion Fermentation Aerobic vaginitis Oxygenation
13.
Monosaccharide
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Monosaccharides, also called simple sugars, are the most basic units of carbohydrates. They are fundamental units of carbohydrates and cannot be hydrolyzed to simpler compounds. The general formula is CnH 2nOn and they are the simplest form of sugar and are usually colorless, water-soluble, and crystalline solids. Some monosaccharides have a sweet taste, examples of monosaccharides include glucose, fructose and galactose. Monosaccharides are the blocks of disaccharides and polysaccharides. Further, each carbon atom that supports a group is chiral, giving rise to a number of isomeric forms. For instance, galactose and glucose are both aldohexoses, but have different physical structures and chemical properties, with few exceptions, monosaccharides have this chemical formula, Cxy, where conventionally x ≥3. Monosaccharides can be classified by the x of carbon atoms they contain, triose tetrose, pentose, hexose, heptose. The most important monosaccharide, glucose, is a hexose, examples of heptoses include the ketoses mannoheptulose and sedoheptulose. Monosaccharides with eight or more carbons are rarely observed as they are quite unstable, in aqueous solutions monosaccharides exist as rings. Simple monosaccharides have a linear and unbranched carbon skeleton with one carbonyl functional group, therefore, the molecular structure of a simple monosaccharide can be written as HnmH, where n +1 + m = x, so that its elemental formula is CxH2xOx. By convention, the atoms are numbered from 1 to x along the backbone. If the carbonyl is at position 1, the molecule begins with a formyl group H− and is technically an aldehyde, in that case, the compound is termed an aldose. Otherwise, the molecule has a group, a carbonyl −− between two carbons, then it is formally a ketone, and is termed a ketose. Ketoses of biological interest usually have the carbonyl at position 2, the various classifications above can be combined, resulting in names such as aldohexose and ketotriose. A more general nomenclature for open-chain monosaccharides combines a Greek prefix to indicate the number of carbons with the suffixes -ose for aldoses, in the latter case, if the carbonyl is not at position 2, its position is then indicated by a numeric infix. So, for example, H4H is pentose, H3H is pentulose, two monosaccharides with equivalent molecular graphs may still be distinct stereoisomers, whose molecules differ in the three-dimensional arrangement of the bonds of certain atoms. This happens only if the molecule contains a center, specifically a carbon atom that is chiral
14.
Polysaccharide
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They range in structure from linear to highly branched. Examples include storage polysaccharides such as starch and glycogen, and structural polysaccharides such as cellulose, polysaccharides are often quite heterogeneous, containing slight modifications of the repeating unit. Depending on the structure, these macromolecules can have distinct properties from their building blocks. They may be amorphous or even insoluble in water, natural saccharides are generally of simple carbohydrates called monosaccharides with general formula n where n is three or more. Examples of monosaccharides are glucose, fructose, and glyceraldehyde, polysaccharides, meanwhile, have a general formula of Cxy where x is usually a large number between 200 and 2500. When the repeating units in the backbone are six-carbon monosaccharides, as is often the case, the general formula simplifies to n. Polysaccharides are an important class of biological polymers and their function in living organisms is usually either structure- or storage-related. Starch is used as a polysaccharide in plants, being found in the form of both amylose and the branched amylopectin. In animals, the structurally similar glucose polymer is the more densely branched glycogen, glycogens properties allow it to be metabolized more quickly, which suits the active lives of moving animals. Cellulose and chitin are examples of structural polysaccharides, cellulose is used in the cell walls of plants and other organisms, and is said to be the most abundant organic molecule on Earth. It has many such as a significant role in the paper and textile industries, and is used as a feedstock for the production of rayon, cellulose acetate, celluloid. Chitin has a structure, but has nitrogen-containing side branches. It is found in arthropod exoskeletons and in the walls of some fungi. It also has multiple uses, including surgical threads, polysaccharides also include callose or laminarin, chrysolaminarin, xylan, arabinoxylan, mannan, fucoidan and galactomannan. Nutrition polysaccharides are common sources of energy, many organisms can easily break down starches into glucose, however, most organisms cannot metabolize cellulose or other polysaccharides like chitin and arabinoxylans. These carbohydrate types can be metabolized by bacteria and protists. Ruminants and termites, for example, use microorganisms to process cellulose, even though these complex carbohydrates are not very digestible, they provide important dietary elements for humans. Called dietary fiber, these carbohydrates enhance digestion among other benefits, the main action of dietary fiber is to change the nature of the contents of the gastrointestinal tract, and to change how other nutrients and chemicals are absorbed
15.
Amylose
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Amylose is a helical polymer made of α-D-glucose units, bonded to each other through α glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is one of the two components of starch, making up approximately 20-30% of the structure, the other component is amylopectin, which makes up 70–80% of the structure. Amylose is made up of α bound glucose molecules, the carbon atoms on glucose are numbered, starting at the aldehyde carbon, so, in amylose, the 1-carbon on one glucose molecule is linked to the 4-carbon on the next glucose molecule. The structural formula of amylose is pictured at right, the number of repeated glucose subunits is usually in the range of 300 to 3000, but can be many thousands. There are three forms of amylose chains can take. It can exist in a disordered amorphous conformation or two different helical forms and it can bind with itself in a double helix, or it can bind with another hydrophobic guest molecule such as iodine, a fatty acid, or an aromatic compound. This is known as the V form and is how amylopectin binds to amylose to form starch, within this group, there are many different variations. Each is notated with V and then a subscript indicating the number of units per turn. The most common is the V6 form, which has six glucose units a turn, v8 and possibly V7 forms exist as well. These provide a larger space for the guest molecule to bind. This linear structure can have some rotation around the phi and psi angles, because the long linear chains of amylose more readily crystallize than amylopectin, high-amylose starch is more resistant to digestion. Unlike amylopectin, amylose is not soluble in cold water and it also reduces the crystallinity of amylopectin and how easily water can infiltrate the starch. The higher the content, the less expansion potential and the lower the gel strength for the same starch concentration. This can be countered partially by increasing the granule size, fiber X-ray diffraction analysis coupled with computer-based structure refinement has found A-, B-, and C- polymorphs of amylose. Each form corresponds to either the A-, the B-, or the C- starch forms, Amylose is important in plant energy storage. It is less readily digested than amylopectin, however, because it is more linear than amylopectin, as a result, it is the preferred starch for storage in plants. It makes up about 30% of the starch in plants. The digestive enzyme α-amylase is responsible for the breakdown of the molecule into maltotriose and maltose
16.
Oligotroph
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An oligotroph is an organism that can live in an environment that offers very low levels of nutrients. They may be contrasted with copiotrophs, which prefer nutritionally rich environments, oligotrophs are characterized by slow growth, low rates of metabolism, and generally low population density. The adjective oligotrophic may be used to refer to environments that offer little to sustain life, organisms that survive in such environments, etymologically, the word oligotroph is a combination of the Greek adjective oligos meaning few and the adjective trophikos ) meaning feeding. Oligotrophic environments include deep oceanic sediments, caves, glacial and polar ice, deep soil, aquifers, ocean waters. Plant adaptations to oligotrophic soils provide for greater and more efficient nutrient uptake, reduced nutrient consumption, improvements in nutrient uptake are facilitated by root adaptations such as nitrogen-fixing root nodules, mycorrhizae and cluster roots. An ecosystem or environment is said to be if it offers little to sustain life. The term is commonly utilised to describe environments of water, ice, air, oligotrophic environments are of special interest for the alternative energy sources and survival strategies upon which life could rely. Thus, soils are extremely nutrient-poor and most vegetation must use strategies such as cluster roots to gain even the smallest quantities of nutrients as phosphorus. An example of oligotrophic soils are those on white-sands, with soil pH lower than 5, similar forests are found in the oligotrophic waters of the Patía River delta on the Pacific side of the Andes. In the ocean, the subtropical gyres north and south of the equator are regions in which the nutrients required for growth are strongly depleted all year round. These areas are described as oligotrophic and exhibit low surface chlorophyll and they are occasionally described as ocean deserts. Oligotrophic lake Eutrophic lake Pelagibacter ubique, most abundant species on Earth and a streamlined oligotroph Special issue about Lake oligotrophication published in Freshwater Biology
17.
Aspergillus niger
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Aspergillus niger is a fungus and one of the most common species of the genus Aspergillus. It causes a disease called black mould on certain fruits and vegetables such as grapes, apricots, onions, and peanuts and it is ubiquitous in soil and is commonly reported from indoor environments, where its black colonies can be confused with those of Stachybotrys. Some strains of A. niger have been reported to produce potent mycotoxins called ochratoxins, other sources disagree, recent evidence suggests some true A. niger strains do produce ochratoxin A. It also produces the isoflavone orobol, a. niger is included in Aspergillus subgenus Circumdati, section Nigri. The section Nigri includes 15 related black-spored species that may be confused with A. niger, including A. tubingensis, A. foetidus, A. carbonarius, a number of morphologically similar species were recently described by Samson et al. Recently the strain of ATCC16404 Aspergillus niger has been reclassified at Aspergillus brasiliensis and this has required an update to the U. S. Pharmacopoeia and the European Pharmacopoeia which commonly use this strain throughout the pharmaceutical industry. A. niger causes black mold of onions and ornamental plants, infection of onion seedlings by A. niger can become systemic, manifesting only when conditions are conducive. A. niger causes a common postharvest disease of onions, in which the black conidia can be observed between the scales of the bulb, the fungus also causes disease in peanuts and in grapes. A. niger is less likely to cause human disease than some other Aspergillus species, in extremely rare instances, humans may become ill, but this is due to a serious lung disease, aspergillosis, that can occur. Aspergillosis is, in particular, frequent among horticultural workers who inhale peat dust and it has been found in the mummies of ancient Egyptian tombs and can be inhaled when they are disturbed. A. niger is one of the most common causes of otomycosis, which can cause pain, temporary hearing loss, a. niger is cultured for the industrial production of many substances. Various strains of A. niger are used in the preparation of citric acid. A. niger fermentation is generally recognized as safe by the United States Food and Drug Administration under the Federal Food, Drug, many useful enzymes are produced using industrial fermentation of A. niger. For example, A. niger glucoamylase is used in the production of corn syrup. Alpha-galactosidase, an enzyme that breaks down complex sugars, is a component of Beano. Another use for A. niger within the industry is in the production of magnetic isotope-containing variants of biological macromolecules for NMR analysis. A. niger growing from gold-mining solution contained cyano-metal complexes, such as gold, silver, copper, iron, the fungus also plays a role in the solubilization of heavy-metal sulfides. Alkali-treated A. niger binds to silver to 10% of dry weight, silver biosorbtion occurs by stoichiometric exchange with Ca and Mg of the sorbent
18.
Mildew
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Mildew is a form of fungus. It is distinguished from its closely related counterpart, mold, largely by its color, molds appear in shades of black, blue, red, and green, whereas mildew is white. It appears as a thin, superficial growth consisting of minute hyphae produced especially on living plants or organic such as wood. Both mold and mildew produce distinct offensive odors, and both have been identified as the cause of human ailments. In horticulture, mildew is either species of fungus in the order Erysiphales and it is also used more generally to mean mold growth. In Old English, mildew meant honeydew, and later came to mean mold or fungus, what horticulturalists and gardeners often refer to as mildew is more precisely powdery mildew. It is caused by different species of fungi in the order Erysiphales. Most species are specific to a range of hosts. The species that affects roses is Sphaerotheca pannosa var. rosae, another plant-associated type of mildew is downy mildew, caused by fungus-like organisms in the family Peronosporaceae. They are obligate plant pathogens, and the species are each parasitic on a narrow range of hosts. In agriculture, downy mildews are a problem for potato, grape, tobacco. The term mildew is often used generically to refer to mold growth, molds can thrive on many organic materials, including clothing, leather, paper, and the ceilings, walls and floors of homes or offices with poor moisture control. Mildew can be cleaned using specialized mildew remover, or substances such as bleach, there are many species of mold. The black mold which grows in attics, on window sills, color alone is not always a reliable indicator of the species of mold. Proper identification requires a microbiologist or mycologist, mold growth found on cellulose-based substrates or materials where moisture levels are high is often Stachybotrys chartarum and is linked with sick building syndrome. “Black mold, ” also known as black mold, ” properly refers to S. chartarum. This species commonly is found indoors on wet materials containing cellulose, such as wallboard, jute, wicker, straw baskets, S. chartarum does not grow on plastic, vinyl, concrete, glass, ceramic tile, or metals. A variety of other species, such as Penicillium or Aspergillus
19.
Botanical Museum Greifswald
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The Botanical Museum Greifswald is a scientific collection at the department of botany of the University of Greifswald. It was founded around 1850 by Julius Münter and is the largest botanical collection in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a herbarium was created in the 17th century when Samuel Gustav Wilcke founded the Botanical Gardens of Greifswald. The Botanical museum was founded by Julius Münter between 1845 and 1855, Münter and his assistants Hermann Zabel and Ludwig Holtz collected botanical objects from the region of New Western Pomerania. The collections were later extended to specimens from other regions, the collection includes naturalia such as wood samples, plant compounds, and drugs as well as artificialia such as scientific models, instruments, and wall charts. The core of the consists of the herbarium with roughly 300.000 specimens. The “Herbarium Higher Plants” documents many endangered or extinct species and serves as the herbarium of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The holdings include 250.000 specimens of ferns and spermatophytes,30.000 algae,17.000 moss, the teaching collection contains flower models of the model makers Robert Brendel and Paul Osterloh, as well as the Arnoldsche Obst-Cabinet with 214 models of fruits. The porcelain models were produced between 1856 and 1899 in Gotha, die digitalisierten Schätze der Universität Greifswald. Richter, S. & Seemann, R. Schatzkammern der Natur – Naturkundliche Sammlungen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Botanical collections in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Description of the collection on universitätssammlungen. de
20.
Myco-heterotrophy
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Myco-heterotrophy is a symbiotic relationship between certain kinds of plants and fungi, in which the plant gets all or part of its food from parasitism upon fungi rather than from photosynthesis. A myco-heterotroph is the plant partner in this relationship. Myco-heterotrophy is considered a kind of cheating relationship and myco-heterotrophs are sometimes referred to as mycorrhizal cheaters. This relationship is referred to as mycotrophy, though this term is also used for plants that engage in mutualistic mycorrhizal relationships. Full myco-heterotrophy exists when a non-photosynthetic plant gets all of its food from the fungi that it parasitizes, partial myco-heterotrophy exists when a plant is capable of photosynthesis, but parasitizes fungi as a supplementary food supply. Not all non-photosynthetic or achlorophyllous plants are myco-heterotrophic – some non-photosynthetic plants like dodder directly parasitize the vascular tissue of other plants, in the past, non-photosynthetic plants were mistakenly thought to get food by breaking down organic matter in a manner similar to saprotrophic fungi. Such plants were therefore called saprophytes, the interface between the plant and fungal partners in this association is between the roots of the plant and the mycelium of the fungus. Myco-heterotrophy therefore closely resembles mycorrhiza, except that in myco-heterotrophy, the flow of carbon is from the fungus to the plant, most myco-heterotrophs can therefore be seen as ultimately being epiparasites, since they take energy from fungi that in turn get their energy from vascular plants. Indeed, much myco-heterotrophy takes place in the context of common mycorrhizal networks, in which plants use mycorrhizal fungi to exchange carbon, in these systems, myco-heterotrophs play the role of mycorrhizal cheaters, taking carbon from the common network, with no known reward. In congruence with older reports, it has recently shown that some myco-heterotrophic orchids can be supported by saprotrophic fungi. In addition, several plants have been shown to engage in partial myco-heterotrophy. Myco-heterotrophs are found among a number of plant groups, all monotropes and non-photosynthetic orchids are full myco-heterotrophs, as is the non-photosynthetic liverwort Cryptothallus. Partial myco-heterotrophy is common in the Gentian family, with a few such as Voyria being fully myco-heterotrophic, in photosynthetic orchids. Some ferns and clubmosses have myco-heterotrophic gametophyte stages, examples of fungi parasitized by myco-heterotrophic plants can be found among the ectomycorrhizal, arbuscular mycorrhizal, and orchid mycorrhizal fungi. The Strange and Wonderful Myco-heterotrophs The Parasitic Plant Connection, SIU Carbondale, waynes Word Noteworthy Plant For June 1997, Fungus Flowers – Flowering Plants that Resemble Fungi by WP Armstrong. Fungus of the Month for October 2002, Monotropa uniflora by Tom Volk, TomVolkFungi. net Martíns Treasure Chest – images of myco-heterotrophs by mycologist Martín Bidartondo
21.
Sake
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Sake, also spelled saké in English, is a Japanese rice wine made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. The brewing process for sake differs from the process for beer in that, for beer, like other rice wines, when sake is brewed, these conversions occur simultaneously. Furthermore, the alcohol content differs between sake, wine, and beer, Wine generally contains 9%–16% ABV, while most beer contains 3%–9%, and undiluted sake contains 18%–20%. In the Japanese language, the word sake can refer to any alcoholic drink, under Japanese liquor laws, sake is labelled with the word seishu, a synonym less commonly used in conversation. The origin of sake is unclear, the making of Chinese alcoholic beverages predates recorded history. The earliest reference to the use of alcohol in Japan is recorded in the Book of Wei in the Records of the Three Kingdoms and this 3rd-century Chinese text speaks of the Japanese drinking and dancing. Alcoholic beverages are mentioned several times in the Kojiki, Japans first written history, bamforth places the probable origin of true sake (which is made from rice, water, and kōji mold in the Nara period. In the Heian period, sake was used for ceremonies, court festivals. Sake production was a government monopoly for a time, but in the 10th century, temples and shrines began to brew sake. The Tamon-in Diary, written by abbots of Tamon-in from 1478 to 1618, the diary shows that pasteurization and the process of adding ingredients to the main fermentation mash in three stages were established practices by that time. In the 16th century, the technique of distillation was introduced into the Kyushu district from Ryukyu, the brewing of shōchū, called Imo—sake started, and was sold at the central market in Kyoto. The work of writers was widely disseminated throughout Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. During the Meiji Restoration, laws were written that allowed anybody with the money and know-how to construct, around 30,000 breweries sprang up around the country within a year. However, as the years went by, the government levied more and more taxes on the sake industry, most of the breweries that grew and survived this period were set up by wealthy landowners. Landowners who grew rice crops would have left over at the end of the season and, rather than letting these leftovers go to waste. The most successful of these family breweries still operate today, during the 20th century, sake-brewing technology grew by leaps and bounds. The government opened the sake-brewing research institute in 1904, and in 1907 the very first government-run sake-tasting competition was held, yeast strains specifically selected for their brewing properties were isolated and enamel-coated steel tanks arrived. The government started hailing the use of tanks as easy to clean, lasting forever
22.
Cassava
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Manihot esculenta is a woody shrub native to South America of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. It is extensively cultivated as a crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root. Though it is often called yuca in Spanish and in the United States, it differs from the yucca, Cassava, when dried to a powdery extract, is called tapioca, its fermented, flaky version is named garri. Cassava is the third-largest source of carbohydrates in the tropics, after rice. Cassava is a staple food in the developing world, providing a basic diet for over half a billion people. It is one of the most drought-tolerant crops, capable of growing on marginal soils, Nigeria is the worlds largest producer of cassava, while Thailand is the largest exporter of dried cassava. Cassava is classified as sweet or bitter. Like other roots and tubers, both bitter and sweet varieties of cassava contain antinutritional factors and toxins, with the bitter varieties containing much larger amounts, the more toxic varieties of cassava are a fall-back resource in times of famine or food insecurity in some places. Farmers often prefer the bitter varieties because they deter pests, animals, the cassava root is long and tapered, with a firm, homogeneous flesh encased in a detachable rind, about 1 mm thick, rough and brown on the outside. Commercial cultivars can be 5 to 10 cm in diameter at the top, a woody vascular bundle runs along the roots axis. The flesh can be chalk-white or yellowish, Cassava roots are very rich in starch and contain small amounts of calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin C. However, they are poor in protein and other nutrients, in contrast, cassava leaves are a good source of protein, but deficient in the amino acid methionine and possibly tryptophan. Forms of the domesticated species can also be found growing in the wild in the south of Brazil. By 4,600 BC, manioc pollen appears in the Gulf of Mexico lowlands, the oldest direct evidence of cassava cultivation comes from a 1, 400-year-old Maya site, Joya de Cerén, in El Salvador. With its high potential, it had become a staple food of the native populations of northern South America, southern Mesoamerica. Cassava was a food of pre-Columbian peoples in the Americas and is often portrayed in indigenous art. The Moche people often depicted yuca in their ceramics, spaniards in their early occupation of Caribbean islands did not want to eat cassava or maize, which they considered insubstantial, dangerous, and not nutritious. They much preferred foods from Spain, specifically wheat bread, olive oil, red wine, and meat, for these Christians in the New World, cassava was not suitable for communion since it could not undergo transubstantiation and become the body of Christ
23.
Saccharomyces
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Saccharomyces is a genus of fungi that includes many species of yeasts. Saccharomyces is from Greek σάκχαρ and μύκης and means sugar fungus, many members of this genus are considered very important in food production. It is known as the brewers yeast or bakers yeast and they are unicellular and saprophytic fungi. One example is Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is used in making wine, bread, colonies of Saccharomyces grow rapidly and mature in three days. They are flat, smooth, moist, glistening or dull, the inability to use nitrate and ability to ferment various carbohydrates are typical characteristics of Saccharomyces. Generally, they have a diameter of 2-8μm and length of 3-25μm and they are unicellular, globose, and ellipsoid to elongate in shape. Saccharomyces produces ascospores, especially when grown on V-8 medium, acetate ascospor agar and these ascospores are globose and located in asci. Asci do not rupture at maturity, ascospores are stained with Kinyoun stain and ascospore stain. When stained with Gram stain, ascospores appear Gram-negative, while vegetative cells appear Gram-positive, the presence of yeast in beer was first suggested in 1680, although the genus was not named Saccharomyces until 1837. It was not until 1876 that Louis Pasteur demonstrated the involvement of living organisms in fermentation and in 1883, hansen isolated brewing yeast and propagated the culture, leading to the discovery of the importance of yeast in brewing. The use of microscopes for the study of yeast morphology and purity was crucial to understanding their functionality, brewing yeasts are polyploid and belong to the Saccharomyces genera. The brewing strains can be classified into two groups, the ale strains and the lager strains, lager strains are a hybrid strain of S. cerevisiae and S. eubayanus and are often referred to as bottom fermenting. In contrast, ale strains are referred to as top fermenting strains, Saccharomyces cause food spoilage of sugar-rich foods, such as maple sap, syrup, concentrated juices and condiments. Case report suggest extended exposure to S. cerevisiae can result in hypersensitivity, mating of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae virus L-A Schizosaccharomyces pombe Saccharomyces Genome Database Saccharomyces at NCBI taxonomy browser Saccharomyces at Milk the Funk Wiki
24.
Aspergillus oryzae
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The domestication of A. oryzae occurred at least 2000 years ago. A. oryzae is used for the production of rice vinegars. His proposal was approved at the annual meeting in 2006. Red kōji-kin is a species, Monascus purpureus. 300 BCE – A. oryzae is first mentioned in the Zhouli in China and these properties of A. White was discovered at the beginning of the Taishō period when natural mutation and separation of some black kōji to white was observed. This effect was researched and white kōji was successfully grown independently, White kōji is easy to cultivate and its enzymes promote rapid saccharization, as a result, it is used to produce most shōchū today. It gives rise to a drink with a refreshing, gentle, black is mainly used in Okinawa to produce awamori. It produces plenty of citric acid which helps to prevent the souring of the moromi, of all three kōji, it most effectively extracts the taste and character of the base ingredients, giving its shōchū a rich aroma with a slightly sweet, mellow taste. Its spores disperse easily, covering production facilities and workers clothes in a layer of black, several popular brands now explicitly state they use black kōji on their labels. Yellow is used to produce sake, and at one time all honkaku shōchū, however, yellow kōji is extremely sensitive to temperature, its moromi can easily sour during fermentation. This makes it difficult to use in warmer regions such as Kyūshū and its strength is that it gives rise to a rich, fruity, refreshing taste, so despite the difficulties and great skill required, it is still used by some manufacturers. It is popular amongst young people and women who previously had no interest in typically strong potato shōchū, initially kept secret, the A. oryzae genome was released by a consortium of Japanese biotechnology companies in late 2005. The eight chromosomes together comprise 37 million base pairs and 12 thousand predicted genes, the genome of A. oryzae is thus one-third larger than that of two related Aspergillus species, the genetics model organism A. nidulans and the potentially dangerous A. fumigatus. Many of the genes present in A. oryzae are predicted to be involved in secondary metabolism. The sequenced strain isolated in 1950 is called RIB40 or ATCC42149, its morphology, growth, resveratrol can be produced from its glucoside piceid through the process of fermentation by A. oryzae. A. oryzae is a character in the manga series Moyasimon, Tales of Agriculture. Sake Worlds description of koji Aspergillus oryzae genome from the Database of Genomes Analysed at NITE
25.
Natural product
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A natural product is a chemical compound or substance produced by a living organism—that is, found in nature. In the broadest sense, natural products include any substance produced by life, natural products can also be prepared by chemical synthesis and have played a central role in the development of the field of organic chemistry by providing challenging synthetic targets. The term natural product has also extended for commercial purposes to refer to cosmetics, dietary supplements. Within the field of chemistry, the definition is often further restricted to secondary metabolites. Secondary metabolites are not essential for survival, but nevertheless provide organisms that produce them an evolutionary advantage, many secondary metabolites are cytotoxic and have been selected and optimized through evolution for use as chemical warfare agents against prey, predators, and competing organisms. Natural products sometimes have pharmacological or biological activity that can be of benefit in treating diseases. As such, natural products are the active components not only of most traditional medicines, in fact, natural products are the inspiration for approximately one half of U. S. Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs. The broadest definition of natural product is anything that is produced by life, and includes the likes of biotic materials, bio-based materials, bodily fluids, a more restrictive definition of a natural product is an organic compound that is synthesized by a living organism. The remainder of this article restricts itself to this more narrow definition, natural products may be classified according to their biological function, biosynthetic pathway, or source as described below. Following Albrecht Kossels original proposal in 1891, natural products are divided into two major classes, the primary and secondary metabolites. Primary metabolites have a function that is essential to the survival of the organism that produces them. Secondary metabolites in contrast have a function that mainly affects other organisms. Secondary metabolites are not essential to survival but do increase the competitiveness of the organism within its environment, because of their ability to modulate biochemical and signal transduction pathways, some secondary metabolites have useful medicinal properties. Natural products especially within the field of chemistry are often defined as primary and secondary metabolites. A more restrictive definition limiting natural products to secondary metabolites is commonly used within the fields of medicinal chemistry, primary metabolites as defined by Kossel are components of basic metabolic pathways that are required for life. They are associated with cellular functions such as nutrient assimilation, energy production. They have a species distribution that span many phyla and frequently more than one kingdom. Primary metabolites include carbohydrates, lipids, amino acids, and nucleic acids which are the building blocks of life
26.
Drug development
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Drug development is the process of bringing a new pharmaceutical drug to the market once a lead compound has been identified through the process of drug discovery. Broadly, the process of development can be divided into pre-clinical and clinical work. New chemical entities are compounds that emerge from the process of drug discovery and these have promising activity against a particular biological target that is important in disease. However, little is known about the safety, toxicity, pharmacokinetics and it is the function of drug development to assess all of these parameters prior to human clinical trials. A further major objective of development is to recommend the dose. In addition, drug development must establish the physicochemical properties of the NCE, its chemical makeup, stability, manufacturers must optimize the process they use to make the chemical so they can scale up from a medicinal chemist producing milligrams, to manufacturing on the kilogram and ton scale. They further examine the product for suitability to package as capsules, tablets, aerosol, intramuscular injectable, subcutaneous injectable, together, these processes are known in preclinical development as chemistry, manufacturing, and control. Many aspects of development focus on satisfying the regulatory requirements of drug licensing authorities. These generally constitute a number of tests designed to determine the major toxicities of a novel compound prior to first use in humans. It is a requirement that an assessment of major organ toxicity be performed. The information is gathered from this testing, as well as information on CMC. If the IND is approved, development moves to the clinical phase, Clinical trials involve three or four steps, Phase I trials, usually in healthy volunteers, determine safety and dosing. Phase II trials are used to get a reading of efficacy. Phase III trials are large, pivotal trials to determine safety, if safety and efficacy are adequately proved, clinical testing may stop at this step and the NCE advances to the new drug application stage. Phase IV trials are post-approval trials that are sometimes a condition attached by the FDA, the process of defining characteristics of the drug does not stop once an NCE begins human clinical trials. They must also test the compound for its potential to cause cancer, in the United States, this process is called a new drug application or NDA. Most NCEs fail during drug development, either because they have unacceptable toxicity or because they simply do not have the effect on the targeted disease as shown in clinical trials. The full cost of bringing a new drug to market – from discovery through clinical trials to approval – is complex, typically, companies spend tens to hundreds of millions of U. S. dollars
27.
Citric acid
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Citric acid is a weak organic tricarboxylic acid having the chemical formula C6H8O7. It occurs naturally in citrus fruits, in biochemistry, it is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle, which occurs in the metabolism of all aerobic organisms. More than a million tons of acid are manufactured every year. It is used widely as an acidifier, as a flavoring and chelating agent, a citrate is a derivative of citric acid, that is, the salts, esters, and the polyatomic anion found in solution. An example of the former, a salt is trisodium citrate, when part of a salt, the formula of the citrate ion is written as C6H5O73− or C3H5O33−. Citric acid exists in greater than trace amounts in a variety of fruits and vegetables, lemons and limes have particularly high concentrations of the acid, it can constitute as much as 8% of the dry weight of these fruits. The concentrations of acid in citrus fruits range from 0.005 mol/L for oranges and grapefruits to 0.30 mol/L in lemons. Within species, these values vary depending on the cultivar and the circumstances in which the fruit was grown, wehmer discovered Penicillium mold could produce citric acid from sugar. However, microbial production of citric acid did not become important until World War I disrupted Italian citrus exports. In this production technique, which is still the major route to citric acid used today. The source of sugar is corn steep liquor, molasses, hydrolyzed corn starch or other inexpensive sugary solutions, in 1977, a patent was granted to Lever Brothers for the chemical synthesis of citric acid starting either from aconitic or isocitrate/alloisocitrate calcium salts under high pressure conditions. This produced citric acid in near quantitative conversion under what appeared to be a reverse non-enzymatic Krebs cycle reaction, in 2007, worldwide annual production stood at approximately 1,600,000 tons. More than 50% of this volume was produced in China, citric acid was first isolated in 1784 by the chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele, who crystallized it from lemon juice. It can exist either in a form or as a monohydrate. The anhydrous form crystallizes from hot water, while the forms when citric acid is crystallized from cold water. The monohydrate can be converted to the form at about 78 °C. Citric acid also dissolves in ethanol at 15 °C. It decomposes with loss of carbon dioxide above about 175 °C, citric acid is normally considered to be a tribasic acid, with pKa values, extrapolated to zero ionic strength, of 5.21,4.28 and 2.92 at 25 °C
28.
Tonne
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The SI symbol for the tonne is t, adopted at the same time as the unit itself in 1879. Its use is also official, for the metric ton, within the United States, having been adopted by the US National Institute of Standards and it is a symbol, not an abbreviation, and should not be followed by a period. Informal and non-approved symbols or abbreviations include T, mT, MT, in French and all English-speaking countries that are predominantly metric, tonne is the correct spelling. Before metrication in the UK the unit used for most purposes was the Imperial ton of 2,240 pounds avoirdupois, equivalent to 1,016 kg, differing by just 1. 6% from the tonne. Ton and tonne are both derived from a Germanic word in use in the North Sea area since the Middle Ages to designate a large cask. A full tun, standing about a high, could easily weigh a tonne. An English tun of wine weighs roughly a tonne,954 kg if full of water, in the United States, the unit was originally referred to using the French words millier or tonneau, but these terms are now obsolete. The Imperial and US customary units comparable to the tonne are both spelled ton in English, though they differ in mass, one tonne is equivalent to, Metric/SI,1 megagram. Equal to 1000000 grams or 1000 kilograms, megagram, Mg, is the official SI unit. Mg is distinct from mg, milligram, pounds, Exactly 1000/0. 453 592 37 lb, or approximately 2204.622622 lb. US/Short tons, Exactly 1/0. 907 184 74 short tons, or approximately 1.102311311 ST. One short ton is exactly 0.90718474 t, imperial/Long tons, Exactly 1/1. 016 046 9088 long tons, or approximately 0.9842065276 LT. One long ton is exactly 1.0160469088 t, for multiples of the tonne, it is more usual to speak of thousands or millions of tonnes. Kilotonne, megatonne, and gigatonne are more used for the energy of nuclear explosions and other events. When used in context, there is little need to distinguish between metric and other tons, and the unit is spelt either as ton or tonne with the relevant prefix attached. *The equivalent units columns use the short scale large-number naming system used in most English-language countries. †Values in the equivalent short and long tons columns are rounded to five significant figures, ǂThough non-standard, the symbol kt is also sometimes used for knot, a unit of speed for sea-going vessels, and should not be confused with kilotonne. A metric ton unit can mean 10 kilograms within metal trading and it traditionally referred to a metric ton of ore containing 1% of metal. In the case of uranium, the acronym MTU is sometimes considered to be metric ton of uranium, in the petroleum industry the tonne of oil equivalent is a unit of energy, the amount of energy released by burning one tonne of crude oil, approximately 42 GJ
29.
Enzyme
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Enzymes /ˈɛnzaɪmz/ are macromolecular biological catalysts. Enzymes accelerate, or catalyze, chemical reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process upon which enzymes may act are called substrates and the enzyme converts these into different molecules, called products. Almost all metabolic processes in the cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates fast enough to sustain life, the set of enzymes made in a cell determines which metabolic pathways occur in that cell. The study of enzymes is called enzymology, enzymes are known to catalyze more than 5,000 biochemical reaction types. Most enzymes are proteins, although a few are catalytic RNA molecules, enzymes specificity comes from their unique three-dimensional structures. Like all catalysts, enzymes increase the rate of a reaction by lowering its activation energy, some enzymes can make their conversion of substrate to product occur many millions of times faster. An extreme example is orotidine 5-phosphate decarboxylase, which allows a reaction that would take millions of years to occur in milliseconds. Chemically, enzymes are like any catalyst and are not consumed in chemical reactions, enzymes differ from most other catalysts by being much more specific. Enzyme activity can be affected by other molecules, inhibitors are molecules that decrease enzyme activity, many drugs and poisons are enzyme inhibitors. An enzymes activity decreases markedly outside its optimal temperature and pH, some enzymes are used commercially, for example, in the synthesis of antibiotics. French chemist Anselme Payen was the first to discover an enzyme, diastase and he wrote that alcoholic fermentation is an act correlated with the life and organization of the yeast cells, not with the death or putrefaction of the cells. In 1877, German physiologist Wilhelm Kühne first used the term enzyme, the word enzyme was used later to refer to nonliving substances such as pepsin, and the word ferment was used to refer to chemical activity produced by living organisms. Eduard Buchner submitted his first paper on the study of yeast extracts in 1897, in a series of experiments at the University of Berlin, he found that sugar was fermented by yeast extracts even when there were no living yeast cells in the mixture. He named the enzyme that brought about the fermentation of sucrose zymase, in 1907, he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of cell-free fermentation. Following Buchners example, enzymes are usually named according to the reaction they carry out, the biochemical identity of enzymes was still unknown in the early 1900s. Sumner showed that the enzyme urease was a protein and crystallized it. These three scientists were awarded the 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the discovery that enzymes could be crystallized eventually allowed their structures to be solved by x-ray crystallography. This high-resolution structure of lysozyme marked the beginning of the field of structural biology, an enzymes name is often derived from its substrate or the chemical reaction it catalyzes, with the word ending in -ase
30.
Glucose oxidase
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The glucose oxidase enzyme also known as notatin is an oxido-reductase that catalyses the oxidation of glucose to hydrogen peroxide and D-glucono-δ-lactone. This enzyme is produced by species of fungi and insects and displays antibacterial activity when oxygen. Glucose oxidase is used for the determination of free glucose in body fluids, in vegetal raw material. It also has applications in biotechnologies, typically enzyme assays for biochemistry including biosensors in nanotechnologies. It is often extracted from Aspergillus niger, glucose oxidase is synthesized in several species of fungi and insects where it is used to produce hydrogen peroxide which in turn kills bacteria. Notatin, extracted from antibacterial cultures of Penicillium notatum, was originally named Penicillin A, notatin was shown to be identical to Penicillin B and glucose oxidase, enzymes extracted from other molds besides P. notatum, it is now generally known as glucose oxidase. Early experiments showed that notatin exhibits in vitro antibacterial activity due to hydrogen peroxide formation, in vivo tests showed that notatin was not effective in protecting rodents from Streptococcus haemolyticus, Staphylococcus aureus, or salmonella, and caused severe tissue damage at some doses. Glucose oxidase is also produced by the glands of honeybee workers. GOx at the surface of the honey reduces atmospheric O2 to hydrogen peroxide, GOx is a dimeric protein, the 3D structure of which has been elucidated. The active site where glucose binds is in a deep pocket, the enzyme, like many proteins that act outside of cells, is covered with carbohydrate chains. At pH7, glucose exists in solution in cyclic hemiacetal form as 63. 6% β-D-glucopyranose and 36. 4% α-D-glucopyranose, the glucose oxidase binds specifically to β-D-glucopyranose and does not act on α-D-glucose. It is able to all of the glucose in solution because the equilibrium between the α and β anomers is driven towards the β side as it is consumed in the reaction. Glucose oxidase catalyzes the oxidation of β-D-glucose into D-glucono-1, 5-lactone, in order to work as a catalyst, GOx requires a cofactor, flavin adenine dinucleotide. FAD is a component in biological oxidation-reduction. Redox reactions involve a gain or loss of electrons from a molecule, in the GOx-catalyzed redox reaction, FAD works as the initial electron acceptor and is reduced to FADH2. Then FADH2 is oxidized by the electron acceptor, molecular oxygen. O2 is then reduced to hydrogen peroxide, similar assays allows to monitor glucose levels in fermentation, bioreactors, and to control glucose in vegetal raw material and food products. In the glucose oxidase assay, the glucose is first oxidized by glucose oxidase to produce gluconate, the hydrogen peroxide is then oxidatively coupled with a chromogen to produce a colored compound which may be measured spectroscopically
31.
Lysozyme
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Lysozyme, also known as muramidase or N-acetylmuramide glycanhydrolase is an antimicrobial enzyme produced by animals that forms part of the innate immune system. This hydrolysis in turn compromises the integrity of cell walls causing lysis of the bacteria. Lysozyme is abundant in a number of secretions, such as tears, saliva, human milk and it is also present in cytoplasmic granules of the macrophages and the polymorphonuclear neutrophils. Large amounts of lysozyme can be found in egg white, c-type lysozymes are closely related to alpha-lactalbumin in sequence and structure, making them part of the same family. In humans, the enzyme is encoded by the LYZ gene. Lysozyme is thermally stable, with a melting point reaching up to 72 ℃ at pH5.0, however, in human milk it loses activity very fast at that temperature. In a large range of pH lysozyme can survive, the enzyme functions by attacking, hydrolyzing, and breaking glycosidic bonds in peptidoglycans. The enzyme can also break glycosidic bonds in chitin, although not as effective as true chitinases, the ability to break down both oligosaccharides suggests a similar mechanism between the breakdown of the two molecules. Lysozymes active site binds the peptidoglycan molecule in the prominent cleft between its two domains and it attacks peptidoglyans, its natural substrate, between N-acetylmuramic acid and the fourth carbon atom of N-acetylglucosamine. Shorter saccharides like tetrasaccharide have also shown to be viable substrates, chitin has also been show to be a viable lysozyme substrate. Artificial substrates have also developed and used in lysozyme. The Phillips Mechanism proposed that the enzymes catalytic power came from both steric strain on the substrate and electrostatic stabilization of the oxo-carbenium intermediate. From x-ray crystallography data, Phillips proposed the lysozymes active site binds to a hexasaccharide, the lysozyme distorts the fourth sugar in hexasaccharide into a half-chair conformation. In this stressed state, the bond is more easily broken. An ionic intermediate containing an oxo-carbenium is created as a result of the glycosidic bond breaking, thus distortion causing the substrate molecule to adopt a strained conformation similar to that of the transition state will lower the energy barrier of the reaction. This oxo-carbonium intermediate was proposed to be electrostatically stabilized by Arieh Warshel in 1978. Residues in the site, such as aspartate and glutamate are able to stabilize this intermediate. The electrostatic stabilization argument was based on comparison to bulk water, in Warshels model, the enzyme acts as a super-sovlent, which fixes the orientation of ion pairs and provides super-solvation, and especially lower the energy when to ions are close to each other
32.
Bioreactor
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A bioreactor may refer to any manufactured or engineered device or system that supports a biologically active environment. In one case, a bioreactor is a vessel in which a process is carried out which involves organisms or biochemically active substances derived from such organisms. This process can either be aerobic or anaerobic and these bioreactors are commonly cylindrical, ranging in size from litres to cubic metres, and are often made of stainless steel. A bioreactor may refer to a device or system meant to grow cells or tissues in the context of cell culture. These devices are being developed for use in engineering or biochemical engineering. On the basis of mode of operation, a bioreactor may be classified as batch, an example of a continuous bioreactor is the chemostat. Organisms growing in bioreactors may be submerged in liquid medium or may be attached to the surface of a solid medium, submerged cultures may be suspended or immobilized. Suspension bioreactors can use a variety of organisms, since special attachment surfaces are not needed. However, in a continuously operated process the organisms will be removed from the reactor with the effluent, immobilization is a general term describing a wide variety of cell or particle attachment or entrapment. It can be applied to all types of biocatalysis including enzymes, cellular organelles, animal. Under optimum conditions, the microorganisms or cells are able to perform their function with limited production of impurities. The environmental conditions inside the bioreactor, such as temperature, nutrient concentrations, pH, the temperature of the fermentation medium is maintained by a cooling jacket, coils, or both. Particularly exothermic fermentations may require the use of heat exchangers. Nutrients may be added to the fermenter, as in a fed-batch system. The pH of the medium is measured and adjusted with small amounts of acid or base, for aerobic fermentations, reactant gases must be added to the fermentation. Since oxygen is relatively insoluble in water, air must be added continuously, the action of the rising bubbles helps mix the fermentation medium and also strips out waste gases, such as carbon dioxide. In practice, bioreactors are often pressurized, this increases the solubility of oxygen in water, in an aerobic process, optimal oxygen transfer is sometimes the rate limiting step. Oxygen is poorly soluble in water—even less in warm fermentation broths—and is relatively scarce in air, Oxygen transfer is usually helped by agitation, which is also needed to mix nutrients and to keep the fermentation homogeneous
33.
Aspergillus nidulans
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Aspergillus nidulans is one of many species of filamentous fungi in the phylum Ascomycota. It is one of the few species in its genus able to form sexual spores through meiosis, a. nidulans is a homothallic fungus, meaning it is able to self-fertilize and form fruiting bodies in the absence of a mating partner. It has septate hyphae with a woolly texture and white mycelia. The green colour of wild-type colonies is due to pigmentation of the spores, the A. nidulans genome was sequenced in a collaboration between Monsanto and the Broad Institute. A sequence with 13-fold coverage was publicly released in March 2003 and it is 30 million base pairs in size and is predicted to contain around 9,500 protein-coding genes on eight chromosomes. Recently, several caspase-like proteases were isolated from A. nidulans samples under which programmed cell death had been induced, sexual reproduction occurs in two fundamentally different ways. This is by outcrossing, in two distinct individuals contribute nuclei, or by homothallic sex or self-fertilization in which both nuclei are derived from the same individual. Fusion of haploid nuclei occurs within reproductive structures termed “cleistothecia, ” in which the diploid zygote undergoes meiotic divisions to yield haploid ascospores
34.
Scanning electron microscope
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A scanning electron microscope is a type of electron microscope that produces images of a sample by scanning it with a focused beam of electrons. The electrons interact with atoms in the sample, producing various signals that contain information about the surface topography. The electron beam is scanned in a raster scan pattern. SEM can achieve better than 1 nanometer. Specimens can be observed in vacuum, in low vacuum, in wet conditions. The most common SEM mode is detection of electrons emitted by atoms excited by the electron beam. The number of electrons that can be detected depends, among other things. By scanning the sample and collecting the electrons that are emitted using a special detector. An account of the history of SEM has been presented by McMullan. Ardenne applied the principle not only to achieve magnification but also to purposefully eliminate the chromatic aberration otherwise inherent in the electron microscope. He further discussed the various modes, possibilities and theory of SEM. The types of produced by an SEM include secondary electrons, reflected or back-scattered electrons, photons of characteristic X-rays and light, absorbed current. Secondary electron detectors are standard equipment in all SEMs, but it is rare that a machine would have detectors for all other possible signals. The signals result from interactions of the beam with atoms at various depths within the sample. In the most common or standard detection mode, ie secondary electron imaging or SEI, consequently, SEM can produce very high-resolution images of a sample surface, revealing details less than 1 nm in size. Back-scattered electrons are beam electrons that are reflected from the sample by elastic scattering and they emerge from deeper locations within the specimen and consequently the resolution of BSE images is generally poorer than SE images. BSE images can provide information about the distribution of different elements in the sample, characteristic X-rays are emitted when the electron beam removes an inner shell electron from the sample, causing a higher-energy electron to fill the shell and release energy. These characteristic X-rays are used to identify the composition and measure the abundance of elements in the sample, due to the very narrow electron beam, SEM micrographs have a large depth of field yielding a characteristic three-dimensional appearance useful for understanding the surface structure of a sample
35.
Guido Pontecorvo
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Guido Pellegrino Arrigo Pontecorvo FRS was an Italian-born Scottish geneticist. Guido Pontecorvo, was born into a family of wealthy Italian Industrialists and he fled to Britain after being dismissed from his post in Florence in 1938, due to his Jewish heritage. Institute of Animal Genetics, University of Edinburgh and he was one of eight children. He was a brother to Gillo Pontecorvo and Bruno Pontecorvo, the current genetics building at the University of Glasgow is named in honour of Guido Pontecorvo. The Pontecorvo Building is part of the Anderson College complex located on Dumbarton Road in the West End of Glasgow and it houses one of the few working Paternoster elevators in the UK. He has also lent his name to the annual Pontecorvo award, past Winners,2003 - Robert Irving 2004 - John Rowell 2007 - Katie Armstrong 2009 - Stuart Meiklejohn 2010 - Angela Wilson 20112012 Alun Passey
36.
Genome
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In modern molecular biology and genetics, a genome is the genetic material of an organism. The genome includes both the genes, the noncoding DNA and the material of the mitochondria and chloroplasts. The term genome was created in 1920 by Hans Winkler, professor of botany at the University of Hamburg, the Oxford Dictionary suggests the name is a blend of the words gene and chromosome. However, see omics for a thorough discussion. A few related -ome words already existed—such as biome, rhizome, Some organisms have multiple copies of chromosomes, diploid, triploid, tetraploid and so on. In classical genetics, in a sexually reproducing organism the gamete has half the number of chromosomes of the somatic cell, the halving of the genetic material in gametes is accomplished by the segregation of homologous chromosomes during meiosis. Additionally, the genome can comprise non-chromosomal genetic elements such as viruses, plasmids, even in species that exist in only one sex, what is described as a genome sequence may be a composite read from the chromosomes of various individuals. Colloquially, the genetic makeup is sometimes used to signify the genome of a particular individual or organism. Both the number of pairs and the number of genes vary widely from one species to another. The only exception in humans is found in red blood cells which become enucleated during development. In 1976, Walter Fiers at the University of Ghent was the first to establish the complete sequence of a viral RNA-genome. The next year Fred Sanger completed the first DNA-genome sequence, Phage Φ-X174, the first genome sequence for an archaeon, Methanococcus jannaschii, was completed in 1996, again by The Institute for Genomic Research. The development of new technologies has made it easier and cheaper to do sequencing. The US National Institutes of Health maintains one of several databases of genomic information. Among the thousands of completed genome sequencing projects include those for rice, a mouse, the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, the fish. In December 2013, scientists first sequenced the genome of a Neanderthal. The genome was extracted from the toe bone of a 130, new sequencing technologies, such as massive parallel sequencing have also opened up the prospect of personal genome sequencing as a diagnostic tool, as pioneered by Manteia Predictive Medicine. A major step toward that goal was the completion in 2007 of the genome of James D. Watson
37.
Broad Institute
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Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, often referred to as the Broad Institute, is a biomedical and genomic research center located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The Broad Institute, formerly the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, evolved from a decade of research collaborations among MIT, one cornerstone was the Center for Genome Research of Whitehead Institute at MIT. Founded in 1982, the Whitehead became a center for genomics. Another cornerstone was the Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology established by Harvard Medical School in 1998 to pursue chemical genetics as an academic discipline and its screening facility was one of the first high-throughput resources opened in an academic setting. It facilitated small molecule screening projects for more than 80 research groups worldwide, the Broads made a founding gift of $100 million and the Broad Institute was formally launched in May 2004. In November 2005, the Broads announced an additional $100 million gift to the Institute, on September 4,2008, the Broads announced an endowment of $400 million to make the Broad Institute a permanent establishment. In November 2013, they invested an additional million to fund a second decade of research at the institute. The Broad Institute has 11 core faculty and 195 associate members from Harvard, MIT, the Broad Institute is made up of three types of organizational units, core member laboratories, research programs, and platforms. The platforms include, The faculty and staff of the Broad Institute include physicians, geneticists, and molecular, chemical, todd Golub, a physician-researcher, is director of the cancer program. He applies genomic tools to the classification and study of cancers, myriam Heiman combines genetics, biochemistry, and cell biology to study the features that define different types of neurons and their vulnerability to disease. Deborah Hung is a chemical biologist and an infectious disease physician who studies the interactions between pathogens and their hosts, with the goal of discovering new antibiotic targets, steven Hyman is the director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research. Eric Lander is the director of the Broad Institute, a geneticist, molecular biologist and mathematician, Lander has been a driving force in the development of genomics and a prominent leader of the Human Genome Project. Aviv Regev is a computational biologist with interests in biological networks, Stuart Schreiber is director of the Chemical Biology program. He has developed ways to explore biology, especially disease biology. Edward Scolnick is the former President of Merck Research Laboratories, former Director, feng Zhang is an assistant professor at MIT who developed optogenetics and genome editing technologies. The Broad Institutes facilities at 320 Charles Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as WICGR, this facility was the largest contributor of sequence information to the Human Genome Project. In February 2006, The Broad Institute expanded to a new building at 415 Main Street and this seven-story 231, 000-square-foot building contains office, research laboratory, retail and museum space. In 2011, the announced plans to construct an additional tower adjacent to the 415 Main Street site at 75 Ames Street
38.
Aspergillus terreus
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Aspergillus terreus, also known as Aspergillus terrestris, is a fungus found worldwide in soil. Although thought to be strictly asexual until recently, A. terreus is now known to be capable of sexual reproduction and this saprotrophic fungus is prevalent in warmer climates such as tropical and subtropical regions. Aside from being located in soil, A. terreus has also found in habitats such as decomposing vegetation. A. terreus is commonly used in industry to produce important organic acids, such as acid and cis-aconitic acid, as well as enzymes. It was also the source for the drug mevinolin, a drug for lowering serum cholesterol. A. terreus can cause infection in people with deficient immune systems. It is relatively resistant to amphotericin B, an antifungal drug. Aspergillus terreus also produces aspterric acid and 6-hydroxymellein, inhibitors of pollen development in Arabidopsis thaliana, a. terreus is brownish in colour and gets darker as it ages on culture media. On Czapek or malt extract agar medium at 25 °C, colonies have the conditions to grow rapidly and have smooth-like walls, in some cases, they are able to become floccose, achieving hair-like soft tufts. Colonies on malt extract agar grow faster and sporulate more densely than on other media. A. terreus has conidial heads that are compact, biseriate, conidiophores of A. terreus are smooth and hyaline up to 100–250 × 4–6 µm in diameter. The conidia of A. terreus are small, about 2 µm in diameter, globose-shaped, smooth-walled, unique to this species is the production of aleurioconidia, asexual spores produced directly on the hyphae that are larger than the phialoconidia. This structure might be influential in the way A. terreus presents itself clinically as it can induce elevated inflammatory responses and this fungus is readily distinguished from the other species of Aspergillus by its cinnamon-brown colony colouration and its production of aleurioconidia. The morphology of this provides an accessible way for spores to disperse globally in air current. Elevation of the sporulating head atop a stalk above the growing surface may facilitate spore dispersal through the air. Normally, spores in fungi are discharged into still air, but in A. terreus, it resolves this problem with a long stalk and it allows the spores to discharge into air currents like wind. In turn, A. terreus has a chance to disperse its spores amongst a vast geography which subsequently explains for the worldwide prevalence of the fungus. Despite A. terreus being found worldwide in warm, arable soil, eventually, the dispersed fungal spores come into contact with either liquid or solid material and settle onto it, but only when the conditions are right do the spores germinate
39.
Aspergillus clavatus
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Aspergillus clavatus is a species of Aspergillus with conidia dimensions 3–4.5 x 2. 5–4.5 μms. It is found in soil and animal manure, the fungus was first described scientifically in 1834 by the French mycologist John Baptiste Henri Joseph Desmazières. The fungus can produce the toxin patulin, which may be associated with disease in humans and this species is only occasionally pathogenic. Other sources have identified many species of Aspergillus as producing dry, hydrophobic spores that are inhaled by humans. Due to the size of the spores, about 70% of spores of A. fumigatus are able to penetrate into the trachea and primary bronchi. Inhalation of spores of Aspergillus is a health risk, a. clavatus is allergenic, causing the occupational hypersensitivity pneumonitis known as malt-workers lung. Aspergillus clavatus is a species of Aspergillus and is characterized by elongated club-shaped vesicles, the fungus was first described scientifically in 1834 by the French mycologist John Baptiste Henri Joseph Desmazières. It belongs to the Aspergillus section Clavati, recognized by Charles Thom and Margaret Church, later on, Aspergillus pallidus was concluded to be a white variant of A. clavatus by Samson, which was supported by the identical DNA sequences of the two species. A. clavatus undergoes rapid growth, resulting in the formation of a velvety, the emerging conidial heads are large and clavate when very young, quickly splitting into conspicuous and compact divergent columns. The conidia bearing conidiophores are generally coarse, smooth walled, uncoloured, hyaline, elongated club-shaped vesicles clavate, and bear phialides over their entire-surface, contributing to its short and densely packed structure. The sterigmata are usually found to be uniseriate, numerous and crowded, conidia formed in them are elliptical, smooth and comparatively thick-walled. A. clavatus usually express conidiophores 1. 5-3.00 mm in length, which arises from specialized and widened hyphal cells that eventually become the branching foot cells. The conidia on A. clavatus has been measured upto 3.0 -4.5 X2.5 -3.5 μm. A. clavatus colonies grow rapidly on Czapeks solution agar, reaching 3. 0-3.5 cm, in 10 days at 24-26 °C. Growth is usually plane or moderately furrowed, with appearance of floccose strains. But generally a thin surface layer of mycelial felt is observed. The reverse is usually uncoloured but becomes brown with passing time in some strains, while odor is not prominent in some strains, it can be extremely unpleasant in others. Large conidial heads extend from 300 to 400 μm by 150 to 200 μm when young, however with time, they split into two or more divergent and compressed cordial chains reaching 1.00 mm portraying a colour consisting of artemesia green to slate olive. The observed conidiophores grow up to 1. 5-3.00 mm in length with 20-30 μm in diameter and they slowly and ultimately enlarge at the apex into a clavate vesicle, which consists of a fertile area,200 to 250 μm in length and 40-60 μm wide
40.
Aspergillus flavus
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Aspergillus flavus is a saprotrophic and pathogenic fungus with a cosmopolitan distribution. It is best known for its colonization of cereal grains, legumes, postharvest rot typically develops during harvest, storage, and/or transit. A. flavus infections can occur while hosts are still in the field, in addition to causing preharvest and postharvest infections, many strains produce significant quantities of toxic compounds known as mycotoxins, which, when consumed, are toxic to mammals. A. flavus is also a human and animal pathogen. A. flavus is found globally as a saprophyte in soils, common hosts of the pathogen are cereal grains, legumes, and tree nuts. Specifically, A. flavus infection causes ear rot in corn, infection can be present in the field, preharvest, postharvest, during storage, and during transit. It is common for the pathogen to originate while host crops are still in the field, however, symptoms, a. flavus has the potential to infect seedlings by sporulation on injured seeds. In grains, the pathogen can invade seed embryos and cause infection, the pathogen can also discolor embryos, damage seedlings, and kill seedlings, which reduces grade and price of the grains. The incidence of A. flavus infection increases in the presence of insects, stresses include stalk rot, drought, severe leaf damage, and/or less than ideal storage conditions. Generally, excessive moisture conditions and high temperatures of storage grains, in mammals, the pathogen can cause liver cancer through consumption of contaminated feed or aspergillosis through invasive growth. A. flavus colonies are commonly powdery masses of spores on the upper surface. In both grains and legumes, infection is minimized to small areas, and discoloration and dullness of affected areas is often seen, growth is rapid and colonies appear downy or powdery in texture. Hyphal growth usually occurs by thread-like branching and produces mycelia, once established, the mycelium secretes degradative enzymes or proteins which can break down complex nutrients. Individual hyphae strands are not typically seen by the eye, however. The conidiospores are asexual spores produced by A. flavus during reproduction, the conidiophores of A. flavus are rough and colorless. Phialides are both uniseriate and biseriate, recently, Petromyces was identified as the sexual reproductive stage of A. flavus, where the ascospores develop within sclerotia. The sexual state of this heterothallic fungus arises when strains of opposite mating type are cultured together, sexual reproduction occurs between sexually compatible strains belonging to different vegetative compatibility groups. A. flavus is complex in its morphology and can be classified into two based on the size of sclerotia produced
41.
Aspergillus fumigatus
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Aspergillus fumigatus is a fungus of the genus Aspergillus, and is one of the most common Aspergillus species to cause disease in individuals with an immunodeficiency. A. fumigatus, a widespread in nature, is typically found in soil and decaying organic matter, such as compost heaps. Colonies of the produce from conidiophores thousands of minute grey-green conidia that readily become airborne. For many years, A. fumigatus was thought to reproduce asexually. In 2008, however, A. fumigatus was shown to possess a fully functional sexual cycle,145 years after its original description by Fresenius. Although A. fumigatus occurs in areas with different climates and environments, it displays low genetic variation. Thus the capability for sex is maintained even though little genetic variation is produced, several virulence factors have been postulated to explain this opportunistic behaviour. When the fermentation broth of A. fumigatus was screened, a number of alkaloids with antimitotic properties were discovered. The compounds of interest have been of a known as tryprostatins. A. fumigatus grown on certain building materials can produce genotoxic and cytotoxic mycotoxins, a. fumigatus has a stable haploid genome of 29.4 million base pairs. The genome sequences of three Aspergillus species—Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus nidulans, and Aspergillus oryzae—were published in the journal Nature in December 2005, a. A. fumigatus primarily causes invasive infection in the lung and represents a major cause of morbidity and mortality in these individuals. Additionally, A. fumigatus can cause chronic pulmonary infections, allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, inhalational exposure to airborne conidia is continuous due to their ubiquitous distribution in the environment. However, in healthy individuals the innate immune system is a barrier to A. fumigatus infection. A large portion of inhaled conidia are cleared by the action of the respiratory epithelium. Due to the size of conidia, many conidia deposit in alveoli where they interact with epithelial. Alveolar macrophages phagocytize and destroy conidia within their phagosomes, epithelial cells, specifically type II pneumocytes, also internalize conidia which traffic to the lysosome where ingested conidia are destroyed. Hyphae are too large for cell-mediated internalization, and thus neutrophil-mediated NADPH-oxidase induced damage represents the dominant host defense against hyphae, in addition to these cell-mediated mechanisms of elimination, antimicrobial peptides secreted by the airway epithelium contribute to host defense. Immunosuppressed individuals are susceptible to invasive A. fumigatus infection, which most commonly manifests as invasive pulmonary aspergillosis, inhaled conidia that evade host immune destruction are the progenitors of invasive disease
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. PMID 19146970.
