Decomposition of cellulose and hemicelluloses by wood-rotting fungi and effect of heavy metals

Degradation of cellulose and hemicelluloses by brown-rot fungi is significantly affected by heavy metals. The activity of cellulases is increased in the presence of zinc

CREATION OF A WEB MAP AND MOBILE APPLICATION BASED ON A PRINTED BOOK

The project describes a process of conversion of printed books into a web map and mobile application. The goal of the project is to make spatial data in the book accessible to wide public using GIS especially on web in order to spread the information about this topic. Moreover, as a result of the analysis and of the new perspectives gained from the data context, historians will be able to find new connections. The books that serve as sources of the project (two books with the scope of about 1400 pages featuring hundreds of locations where each location is associated with more events of different types) refer to places with many addresses in Prague and some villages in the Czech Republic which are related to events that took place during the World War II. The paper describes the steps of conversion, the design of the data model in Esri geodatabase and examples of outputs. The historical data are connected to actual addresses and thanks to such a combination of historical and actual locations, the project will help to discover a part of the history of the Czech Republic and it will show new context in data via GIS capabilities. This project is a continuation of a project which recorded a march of death on a map. This is a unique project created in cooperation with Academia Publishing. The outputs of the project will serve as a core resource for a multimedia history portal. The author of the book is currently writing sequels from the post-war period and at least two other books are envisioned, so the future of the project is ensured

Phylogenetic composition and properties of bacteria coexisting with the fungus Hypholoma fasciculare in decaying wood

White-rot fungi are major degraders of woody materials in terrestrial environments because of their ability to decompose lignin. However, little is known on the possible associations of white-rot fungi with other microorganisms during wood decay. We investigated the numbers, community composition and functional traits of bacteria present in natural wood samples under advanced decay by the white-rot basidiomycete Hypholoma fasciculare. The wood samples contained high numbers of cultivable bacteria (0.2–8 109 colony forming units (CFU) per g of dry wood). Most cultivable bacteria belonged to Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria (75% and 23% of sequences, respectively). The same phyla were also found to be dominant (59% and 23%, respectively) using a non-culturable quantification technique, namely, direct cloning and sequencing of 16sRNA genes extracted from wood. Bacteria that could be subcultured consisted of acid-tolerant strains that seemed to rely on substrates released by lignocellulolytic enzyme activities of the fungus. There were no indications for antagonism (antibiosis) of the bacteria against the fungus.

Acidicapsa borealis gen. nov., sp. nov. and A. ligni sp. nov., two novel subdivision 1 Acidobacteria from sphagnum peat and decaying wood

Two strains of subdivision 1 Acidobacteria, namely the pink-pigmented bacterium KA1T and the colorless isolate WH120T, were obtained from acidic Sphagnum peat and wood under decay by the white-rot fungus Hyploma fasciculare, respectively. Cells of these isolates are Gram-negative, non-motile, short rods, which are covered by large polysaccharide capsules and occur singly, in pairs, or in short chains. Strains KA1T and WH120T are strictly aerobic mesophiles that grow between 10 and 33єC, with an optimum at 22-28єC. Both isolates develop under acidic conditions, but strain WH120T is more acidophilic (pH growth range 3.5-6.4, optimum at 4.0-4.5) than strain KA1T (pH growth range 3.5-7.3, optimum at 5.0-5.5). The preferred growth substrates are sugars. In addition, the wood-derived isolate WH120T grows on oxalate, lactate and xylan, while the peat-inhabiting acidobacterium KA1T utilizes galacturonate, glucuronate and pectin. The major fatty acids are iso-C15:0 and iso-C17:1ω8c; the cells contain also significant amounts of 13, 16-dimethyl octacosanedioic acid. The quinone is MK-8. The DNA G+C content is 51.7-54.1 mol %. Strains KA1T and WH120T display 97.8% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to each other. The closest described relatives are Acidobacterium capsulatum and Telmatobacter bradus (93.4-94.3% 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity), which differ from strains KA1T and WH120T by the ability to grow under anoxic conditions, the absence of capsules, cell motility as well as by fatty acid composition. Based on these differences, we propose to classify the two novel isolates as belonging to a novel genus, Acidicapsa gen. nov., and two novel species, A. borealis sp. nov. for strain KA1T (=DSM 23886T = LMG 25897T = VKM B-2678T) and A. ligni sp. nov. for strain WH120T (=LMG 26244T = VKM B-2677T = NCCB 100371T).

Widespread occurrence of expressed fungal secretory peroxidases in forest soils

Fungal secretory peroxidases mediate fundamental ecological functions in the conversion and degradation of plant biomass. Many of these enzymes have strong oxidizing activities towards aromatic compounds and are involved in the degradation of plant cell wall (lignin) and humus. They comprise three major groups: class II peroxidases (including lignin peroxidase, manganese peroxidase, versatile peroxidase and generic peroxidase), dye-decolorizing peroxidases, and hemethiolate peroxidases (e. g. unspecific/aromatic peroxygenase, chloroperoxidase). Here, we have repeatedly observed a widespread expression of all major peroxidase groups in leaf and needle litter across a range of forest ecosystems (e. g. Fagus, Picea, Acer, Quercus, and Populus spp.), which are widespread in Europe and North America. Manganese peroxidases and unspecific peroxygenases were found expressed in all nine investigated forest sites, and dye-decolorizing peroxidases were observed in five of the nine sites, thereby indicating biological significance of these enzymes for fungal physiology and ecosystem processes. Transcripts of selected secretory peroxidase genes were also analyzed in pure cultures of several litter-decomposing species and other fungi. Using this information, we were able to match, in environmental litter samples, two manganese peroxidase sequences to Mycena galopus and Mycena epipterygia and one unspecific peroxygenase transcript to Mycena galopus, suggesting an important role of this litter-and coarse woody debris-dwelling genus in the disintegration and transformation of litter aromatics and organic matter formation