The infectious propagules of Aspergillus fumigatus are coated with antimicrobial peptides

Fungal spores are unique cells that mediate dispersal and survival in the environment. For pathogenic fungi encountering a susceptible host, these specialised structures may serve as infectious particles. The main causative agent of the opportunistic disease aspergillosis, Aspergillus fumigatus, produces asexual spores, the conidia, that become dissipated by air flows or water currents but also serve as propagules to infect a susceptible host. We demonstrate that the defX gene of this mould encodes putative antimicrobial peptides resembling cysteine‐stabilised (CS)$_{αβ}$ defensins that are expressed in a specific spatial and temporal manner in the course of asexual spore formation. Localisation studies on strains expressing a fluorescent proxy or tagged defX alleles expose that these antimicrobial peptides are secreted to coat the conidial surface. Deletion mutants reveal that the spore‐associated defX gene products delay the growth of Gram‐positive Staphylococcus aureus and demonstrate that the defX gene and presumably its encoded spore‐associated defensins confer a growth advantage to the fungal opponent over bacterial competitors. These findings have implications with respect to the ecological niche of A. fumigatus that serves as a ‘virulence school’ for this human pathogenic mould; further relevance is given for the infectious process resulting in aspergillosis, considering competition with the host microbiome or co‐infecting microorganisms to break colonisation resistance at host surfaces

Uncoupling human and climate drivers of late Holocene vegetation change in southern Brazil

In the highlands of southern Brazil an anthropogenitcally driven expansion of forest occurred at the expense of grasslands between 1410 and 900cal BP, coincident with a period of demographic and cultural change in the region. Previous studies have debated the relative contributions of increasing wetter and warmer climate conditions and human landscape modifcations to forest expansion, but generally lacked high resoltiuon proxies to measure these efects, or have relied on single proxies to reconstruct both climate and vegetation. Here, we develop and test a model of natural ecosystem distribution against vegetation histories, paleoclimate proxies, and the archaeological record to distinguish human from temperature and precipitation impacts on the distribution and expansion of Araucaria forests during the late Holocene. Carbon isotopes from soil profles confrm that in spite of climatic fuctuations, vegetation was stable and forests were spatially limited to south-facing slopes in the absence of human inputs. In contrast, forest management strategies for the past 1400 years expanded this economically important forest beyond its natural geographic boundaries in areas of dense pre-Columbian occupation, suggesting that landscape modifcations were linked to demographic changes, the efects of which are still visible today

Links between composition of heavy organo-mineral fractions and forest expansion on grassland with long-term fire history

Comunicación oral S25.B.03, sesión S25 Memory Function of Recent and Paleosoils, dentro del capítulo Symposia.-- Congreso celebrado del 25-29 de agosto 2008, en Viena, Austria.Peer reviewe

Carbon isotope studies and lignin analysis of plants and soil organic matter detect vegetation changes in the southern Brazilian highlands

Comunicación oral SSS29-1TU4O-002, presentada en la Sesión SSS29 Molecular biogeochemistry: the fate of organic carbon in soils.-- Congreso celebrado del 13-18 de abril 2008, en Viena, Austria.The isotopic and biochemical composition of plants, organic surface layers and humic substances from 13 soils was characterized to discover the origin of the present mosaic of grassland (C4) and Araucaria forest (C3). The bulk soils were seperated into light and heavy fractions by density fractionation. 14C dating and 13C values reflect a chronosequence of Araucaria forest expansion on grassland which started after 1300 yr BP.Peer reviewe

Evaluating pore structures of soil components with a combination of "conventional" and hyperpolarised 129Xe NMR studies

129Xe nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic studies of xenon gas adsorbed on model systems representing soil porous components (Al (hyrd)oxides and charcoals) as well as natural soil materials (derived from a non-allophanic Andosol) were performed with the aim of characterising their micro- (empty> pores and pores coated with organic species. In AlOOH, an interconnected system of micro- and mesopores was tested. The enhanced sensitivity of HP 129Xe NMR allowed us detecting micropores in charcoals, where N2 adsorption method underestimated porosity due to the restricted N2 diffusion at 77K. The interconnected pore structure of charcoals was attributed to the voids formed by both polyaromatic and aliphatic domains (evidenced by 13C NMR). The observed differences between the TP- and HP 129Xe NMR patterns were explained by the restricted xenon diffusion through charcoal particles caused by the constricted pore openings. Their suggested size is of the order of one or two diameters of the Xe atom. For the Andosol clay fractions, the large low-field 129Xe shifts (up to 175ppm) increasing with Xe pressure indicated a developed porosity most obviously comprised by the interconnected micro- and mesopores. Such porous network may originate from the >multi-domain> structure of soil clay particles, i.e. particles formed by agglomerated nano-sized crystallites. The latter are assumed to be the polynuclear Alx(H2O)y(OH)z clusters formed by hydrolysis reactions of Al3+ species after the destroying of Al-humus complexes by the H2O2-oxidation. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.Peer Reviewe

Dynamics of microbial communities during decomposition of litter from pioneering plants in initial soil ecosystems

In initial ecosystems, concentrations of all macro- and micronutrients can be considered as extremely low. Plant litter therefore strongly influences the development of a degrader's food web and is an important source for C and N input into soil in such ecosystems. In the present study, a ¹³C litter decomposition field experiment was performed for 30 weeks in initial soils from a post-mining area near the city of Cottbus (Germany). Two of this region's dominant but contrasting pioneering plant species (<i>Lotus corniculatus</i> L. and <i>Calamagrostis epigejos</i> L.) were chosen to investigate the effects of litter quality on the litter decomposing microbial food web in initially nutrient-poor substrates. The results clearly indicate the importance of litter quality, as indicated by its N content, its bioavailability for the degradation process and the development of microbial communities in the detritusphere and soil. The degradation of the <i>L. corniculatus</i> litter, which had a low C / N ratio, was fast and showed pronounced changes in the microbial community structure 1–4 weeks after litter addition. The degradation of the <i>C. epigejos</i> litter material was slow and microbial community changes mainly occurred between 4 and 30 weeks after litter addition to the soil. However, for both litter materials a clear indication of the importance of fungi for the degradation process was observed both in terms of fungal abundance and activity (¹³C incorporation activity

Abundance of microbes involved in nitrogen transformation in the rhizosphere of Leucanthemopsis alpina (L.) Heywood grown in soils from different sites of the Damma glacier forefield.

Glacier forefields are an ideal playground to investigate the role of development stages of soils on the formation of plant-microbe interactions as within the last decades, many alpine glaciers retreated, whereby releasing and exposing parent material for soil development. Especially the status of macronutrients like nitrogen differs between soils of different development stages in these environments and may influence plant growth significantly. Thus, in this study, we reconstructed major parts of the nitrogen cycle in the rhizosphere soil/root system of Leucanthemopsis alpina (L.) HEYWOOD: as well as the corresponding bulk soil by quantifying functional genes of nitrogen fixation (nifH), nitrogen mineralisation (chiA, aprA), nitrification (amoA AOB, amoA AOA) and denitrification (nirS, nirK and nosZ) in a 10-year and a 120-year ice-free soil of the Damma glacier forefield. We linked the results to the ammonium and nitrate concentrations of the soils as well as to the nitrogen and carbon status of the plants. The experiment was performed in a greenhouse simulating the climatic conditions of the glacier forefield. Samples were taken after 7 and 13 weeks of plant growth. Highest nifH gene abundance in connection with lowest nitrogen content of L. alpina was observed in the 10-year soil after 7 weeks of plant growth, demonstrating the important role of associative nitrogen fixation for plant development in this soil. In contrast, in the 120-year soil copy numbers of genes involved in denitrification, mainly nosZ were increased after 13 weeks of plant growth, indicating an overall increased microbial activity status as well as higher concentrations of nitrate in this soil