Evaluation of antibacterial activity of Australian basidiomycetous macrofungi using a high-throughput 96-well plate assay

Context: The production of antimicrobial compounds by macrofungi is not unexpected because they have to compete with other organisms for survival in their natural hostile environment. Previous studies have indicated that macrofungi contain secondary metabolites with a range of pharmacological activities including antimicrobial agents

Methane Flux from Drained Northern Peatlands: Effect of a Persistent Water Table Lowering on Flux

Measurements of CH4 flux from drained and undrained sites in three northern Ontario peatlands (a treed fen, a forested bog, and a treed bog) were made from the beginning of May to the end of October 1991. In the drained portions, the water table had been lowered between 0.1 and 0.5 m, compared to the water table of the undrained portion of the peatlands. The mean seasonal CH4 flux from the undrained portions of three peatlands was small, ranging from 0 to 8 mg m-2d-1, but similar to the CH4 flux from other treed and forested northern peatlands. The mean seasonal CH4 flux from the drained portion of the peatlands was either near zero or slightly negative (i.e., uptake): fluxes ranged from 0.1 to -0.4 mg m-2d-1. Profiles of CH4 in the air-filled pores in the unsaturated zone, and the water-filled pores of the saturated zone of the peat at the undrained sites, showed that all the CH4 produced at depth was consumed within 0.2 m of the water table and that atmospheric CH4 was consumed in the upper 0.15 m of the peatland. On the basis of laboratory incubations of peat slurries to determine CH4 production and consumption potentials, the lowering of the water table eliminated the near-surface zone of CH4 production that existed in the undrained peatland. However, drainage did not alter significantly the potential for CH4 oxidation between the water table and peatland surface but increased the thickness of the layer over which CH4 oxidation could take place. These changes occurred with a drop in the mean summer water table of only 0.1 m (from -0.2 to -0.3 m) suggesting that only a small negative change in soil moisture would be required to significantly reduce CH4 flux from northern peatlands

Australasian sequestrate fungi 18: Solioccasus polychromus gen. & sp. nov., a richly colored, tropical to subtropical, hypogeous fungus

Solioccasus polychromus gen. & sp. nov., the most brightly colored hypogeous fungus known, is described from Papua New Guinea and tropical northern Australia south into subtropical forests along the Queensland coast and coastal mountains to near Brisbane. Phylogenetic analysis of molecular data places it as a sister genus to Bothia in the Boletineae, a clade of predominantly ectomycorrhizal boletes. Ectomycorrhizal trees, such as members of the Myrtaceae (Eucalyptus, Corymbia, Lophostemon, Melaleuca spp.) and Allocasuarina littoralis, were present usually in mixture or in some cases dominant, so we infer some or all of them to be among the ectomycorrhizal hosts of S. polychromus.Cover image—Solioccasus polychromus, an Australasian, tropical to subtropical, hypogeous member of the Boletineae. Upper image by Roy Halling, immature specimens, lower image by Michael Castellano, mature specimens. See article by Trappe et al. in this issue.Keywords: ITS, Boletineae, ectomycorrhizae, rhizomorphs, Bothia, Boletales, Basidiomycota, LSU, tef1, DNA, EF1-α

Climate and Vegetation Changes at Coringa-Herald National Nature Reserve, Coral Sea Islands, Australia.

v. ill. 23 cm.QuarterlyClimatic changes at Coringa-Herald National Nature Reserve (CHNNR) in the last 82 yr include a 0.7_C rise in mean minimum winter temperatures and increases in drought duration and frequency. Between 1991 and 2002, a plague of the scale insects Pulvinaria urbicola (Cockerell), together with attendant ants destroyed Pisonia grandis R.Br. rain forest at South-West Coringa Islet. Scale insect damage of P. grandis has also been recorded at North-East Herald Cay. This study explored the reasons for vegetation dieback during current climate. Woody species such as Argusia argentea (L.) Heine, Cordia subcordata Lam., and the grasses Lepturus repens (G. Forst.) R.Br. and Stenotaphrum micranthum (Desv.) C. E. Hubb. have also declined at CHNNR. Ximenia americana L. and Digitaria ctenantha (F. Muell.) Hughes were found to be locally extinct. Dieback of forests results in reduction of canopy-breeding seabirds and burrowing shearwaters (Puffinus pacificus [Gmelin)]. Dieback species were replaced by the shrub Abutilon albescens Miq. and/or fleshy herbaceous plants such as Achyranthes aspera L., Boerhavia albiflora Fosberg, Ipomoea micrantha Roem. & Schult, Portulaca oleracea L., and Tribulus cistoides L. Increasing duration of droughts and increased temperatures, together with damage caused by exotic insect pests, appear to be the key drivers of the current vegetation changes

Successional dynamics of soil fungal diversity along a restoration chronosequence post-coal mining

Soil disruption from open-cut mining practices can adversely impact microbial communities and the ecosystem services that they mediate. Despite this, assessment of impacts of soil disruption, and the subsequent recovery of microbial communities is rarely studied. Monitoring of ecological restoration success on mine sites has traditionally focused on vegetation; however, most plants rely, at least in part, on associations with soil fungi for enhanced nutrient and water acquisition. Here, we used high-throughput phylogenetic marker gene sequencing to characterize the diversity of soil fungal communities along a restoration chronosequence ranging from 3 to 23 years at a rehabilitated mine site. We used nonmined analogue sites as a baseline for comparative purposes and examined the associations of soil fungal communities with soil physicochemical and aboveground vegetation variables. Fungal richness on rehabilitated sites was significantly larger than on nonmined sites, suggesting that mixing of topsoil during stockpiling resulted in a composite microbial community. Fungal community composition was significantly influenced by edaphic variables and the length of rehabilitation, with mined sites becoming more similar to nonmined sites over time. Fungal populations associated with ectomycorrhizae were relatively more abundant than those associated with arbuscular mycorrhizae and declined in response to disturbance, but recovered over time on the woody dominated sites indicating a strong coupling of these fungi with aboveground vegetation. Our data indicate that soil fungal diversity is a useful bioindicator of soil restoration in mined sites and may complement more traditional vegetation-based surveys

Three new species of Gyroporus (Boletales, Basidiomycota) from Australia

Volume: 37Start Page: 101End Page: 10

Open-cut mining impacts on soil abiotic and bacterial community properties as shown by restoration chronosequence

Open-cut mining severely disrupts landforms and soils, preventing or impeding the restoration of preexisting or functional ecosystems because essential properties of the original soils cannot immediately or easily be reinstated. We examined the soil physicochemical and bacterial characteristics of 21 coal-mined sites in subtropical Queensland, Australia, 3-23 years after establishment of native plant species relative to nonmined analogue sites. Soil disturbance significantly decreased total nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, and especially total carbon (TC). The TC is projected to take 36 years to recover. Bacterial communities assessed by 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing showed greater species richness and evenness in rehabilitated as compared with nonmined soils, regardless of rehabilitation age. However, bacterial species composition was associated significantly with soil electrical conductivity, the plant density, and total stem cross-sectional area of woody vegetation. The bacterial communities on rehabilitated sites became progressively more similar to those of nonmined analogue sites over time. This work demonstrates that if topsoils are conserved carefully during mining and supplemented by inorganic fertilizer addition, vigorous plant growth and changes in bacterial community composition can occur soon after plant establishment. This will mitigate the effects of soil disturbance and accelerate the return to the chemical and biological attributes of nonmined analogue soils

Entonalactams A–C : isoindolinone derivatives from an Australian rainforest fungus belonging to the genus Entonaema

Bioassay-guided fractionation of an antimalarial DCM/MeOH extract derived from the Australian rainforest fungus Entonaema sp. resulted in the isolation of three new isoindolinone derivatives, entonalactams A-C (1-3), along with the known natural products 3-methoxy-5-methylbenzene-1,2-diol (4), daldinal B (5), and ergosta-4,6,8(14),22-tetraen-3-one (6). The chemical structures of the new secondary metabolites were determined following extensive 1D/2D NMR and MS data analysis. A single crystal X-ray structure for entonalactam A (1) confirmed the NMR-based structure assignment. Entonalactams A-C (1-3) were all determined to be racemic based on chiro-optical data. All secondary metabolites were tested in vitro against Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasites, and ergosta-4,6,8(14),22-tetraen-3-one (6) was identified as the most active compound with 66% inhibition at 50 μM

Genome sequencing progenies of magic mushrooms (Psilocybe subaeruginosa) identifies tetrapolar mating and gene duplications in the psilocybin pathway

Knowledge of breeding systems and genetic diversity is critical to select and combine desired traits that advance new cultivars in agriculture and horticulture. Mushrooms that produce psilocybin, magic mushrooms, may potentially be used in therapeutic and wellness industries, and stand to benefit from genetic improvement. We studied haploid siblings of Psilocybe subaeruginosa to resolve the genetics behind mating compatibility and advance knowledge of breeding. Our results show that mating in P. subaeruginosa is tetrapolar, with compatibility controlled at a homeodomain locus with one copy each of HD1 and HD2, and a pheromone/receptor locus with four homologs of the receptor gene STE3. An additional two pheromone/receptor loci homologous to STE3 do not appear to regulate mating compatibility. Alleles in the psilocybin gene cluster did not vary among the five siblings and were likely homozygous in the parent. Psilocybe subaeruginosa and its relatives have three copies of PsiH genes but their impact on production of psilocybin and its analogues is unknown. Genetic improvement in Psilocybe will require access to genetic diversity from the centre of origin of different species, identification of genes behind traits, and strategies to avoid inbreeding depression

Ionosporus rpb2 fasta alignment

A FASTA file of 35 exemplars with aligned rpb2 sequences. 7 of those exemplars were newly seqeunced