Reviewing the use of chitosan and polydopamine for electrochemical sensing

Biopolymers possess highly favorable properties for electrochemical biosensing such as their inherent biocompatibility, inexpensive nature, and strong interfacial adhesion. In this mini-review, we will focus on chitosan and polydopamine, two of the most commonly used biopolymers, for electrochemical sensing applications. Chitosan is a polysaccharide that exhibits high chemical resistance, offers straightforward modification and cross-linking, and possesses antibacterial properties and mucoadhesion. Polydopamine has the benefit of universal adhesion, in addition to the ability to form self-assembled structures. We will demonstrate how the unique structural and electrochemical features of these biopolymers can be used in a range of electrochemical biosensing platforms

Fusarium and allied fusarioid taxa (FUSA). 1

Seven Fusarium species complexes are treated, namely F. aywerte species complex (FASC) (two species), F. buharicum species complex (FBSC) (five species), F. burgessii species complex (FBURSC) (three species), F. camptoceras species complex (FCAMSC) (three species), F. chlamydosporum species complex (FCSC) (eight species), F. citricola species complex (FCCSC) (five species) and the F. concolor species complex (FCOSC) (four species). New species include Fusicolla elongata from soil (Zimbabwe), and Neocosmospora geoasparagicola from soil associated with Asparagus officinalis (Netherlands). New combinations include Neocosmospora akasia, N. awan, N. drepaniformis, N. duplosperma, N. geoasparagicola, N. mekan, N. papillata, N. variasi and N. warna. Newly validated taxa include Longinectria gen. nov., L. lagenoides, L. verticilliforme, Fusicolla gigas and Fusicolla guangxiensis. Furthermore, Fusarium rosicola is reduced to synonymy under N. brevis. Finally, the genome assemblies of Fusarium secorum (CBS 175.32), Microcera coccophila (CBS 310.34), Rectifusarium robinianum (CBS 430.91), Rugonectria rugulosa (CBS 126565), and Thelonectria blattea (CBS 952.68) are also announced her

Fusarium: more than a node or a foot-shaped basal cell

Recent publications have argued that there are potentially serious consequences for researchers in recognising distinct genera in the terminal fusarioid clade of the family Nectriaceae. Thus, an alternate hypothesis, namely a very broad concept of the genus Fusarium was proposed. In doing so, however, a significant body of data that supports distinct genera in Nectriaceae based on morphology, biology, and phylogeny is disregarded. A DNA phylogeny based on 19 orthologous protein-coding genes was presented to support a very broad concept of Fusarium at the F1 node in Nectriaceae. Here, we demonstrate that re-analyses of this dataset show that all 19 genes support the F3 node that represents Fusarium sensu stricto as defined by F. sambucinum (sexual morph synonym Gibberella pulicaris). The backbone of the phylogeny is resolved by the concatenated alignment, but only six of the 19 genes fully support the F1 node, representing the broad circumscription of Fusarium. Furthermore, a re-analysis of the concatenated dataset revealed alternate topologies in different phylogenetic algorithms, highlighting the deep divergence and unresolved placement of various Nectriaceae lineages proposed as members of Fusarium. Species of Fusarium s. str. are characterised by Gibberella sexual morphs, asexual morphs with thin- or thick-walled macroconidia that have variously shaped apical and basal cells, and trichothecene mycotoxin production, which separates them from other fusarioid genera. Here we show that the Wollenweber concept of Fusarium presently accounts for 20 segregate genera with clear-cut synapomorphic traits, and that fusarioid macroconidia represent a character that has been gained or lost multiple times throughout Nectriaceae. Thus, the very broad circumscription of Fusarium is blurry and without apparent synapomorphies, and does not include all genera with fusarium-like macroconidia, which are spread throughout Nectriaceae (e.g., Cosmosporella, Macroconia, Microcera). In this study four new genera are introduced, along with 18 new species and 16 new combinations. These names convey information about relationships, morphology, and ecological preference that would otherwise be lost in a broader definition of Fusarium. To assist users to correctly identify fusarioid genera and species, we introduce a new online identification database, Fusarioid-ID, accessible at www.fusarium.org. The database comprises partial sequences from multiple genes commonly used to identify fusarioid taxa (act1, CaM, his3, rpb1, rpb2, tef1, tub2, ITS, and LSU). In this paper, we also present a nomenclator of names that have been introduced in Fusarium up to January 2021 as well as their current status, types, and diagnostic DNA barcode data. In this study, researchers from 46 countries, representing taxonomists, plant pathologists, medical mycologists, quarantine officials, regulatory agencies, and students, strongly support the application and use of a more precisely delimited Fusarium (= Gibberella) concept to accommodate taxa from the robust monophyletic node F3 on the basis of a well-defined and unique combination of morphological and biochemical features. This F3 node includes, among others, species of the F. fujikuroi, F. incarnatum-equiseti, F. oxysporum, and F. sambucinum species complexes, but not species of Bisifusarium [F. dimerum species complex (SC)], Cyanonectria (F. buxicola SC), Geejayessia (F. staphyleae SC), Neocosmospora (F. solani SC) or Rectifusarium (F. ventricosum SC). The present study represents the first step to generating a new online monograph of Fusarium and allied fusarioid genera (www.fusarium.org)

Fungal Planet description sheets: 1182-1283

Novel species of fungi described in this study include those from various countries as follows: Algeria, Phaeoacremonium adelophialidum from Vitis vinifera. Antarctica, Comoclathris antarctica from soil. Australia, Coniochaeta salicifolia as endophyte from healthy leaves of Geijera salicifolia, Eremothecium peggii in fruit of Citrus australis, Microdochium ratticaudae from stem of Sporobolus natalensis, Neocelosporium corymbiae on stems of Corymbia variegata, Phytophthora kelmanii from rhizosphere soil of Ptilotus pyramidatus, Pseudosydowia backhousiae on living leaves of Backhousia citriodora, Pseudosydowia indoor oopillyensis, Pseudosydowia louisecottisiae and Pseudosydowia queenslandica on living leaves of Eucalyptus sp. Brazil, Absidia montepascoalis from soil. Chile, Ilyonectria zarorii from soil under Maytenus boaria. Costa Rica, Colletotrichum filicis from an unidentified fern. Croatia, Mollisia endogranulata on deteriorated hardwood. Czech Republic, Arcopilus navicularis from tea bag with fruit tea, Neosetophoma buxi as endophyte from Buxus sempervirens, Xerochrysium bohemicum on surface of biscuits with chocolate glaze and filled with jam. France, Entoloma cyaneobasale on basic to calcareous soil, Fusarium aconidiale from Triticum aestivum, Fusarium juglandicola from buds of Juglans regia. Germany, Tetraploa endophytica as endophyte from Microthlaspi perfoliatum roots. India, Castanediella ambae on leaves of Mangifera indica, Lactifluus kanadii on soil under Castanopsis sp., Penicillium uttarakhandense from soil. Italy, Penicillium ferraniaense from compost. Namibia, Bezerromyces gobabebensis on leaves of unidentified succulent, Cladosporium stipagrostidicola on leaves of Stipagrostis sp., Cymostachys euphorbiae on leaves of Euphorbia sp., Deniquelata hypolithi from hypolith under a rock, Hysterobrevium walvisbayicola on leaves of unidentified tree, Knufia hypolithi and Knufia walvisbayicola from hypolith under a rock, Lapidomyces stipagrostidicola on leaves of Stipagrostis sp., Nothophaeotheca mirabibensis (incl. Nothophaeotheca gen. nov.) on persistent inflorescence remains of Blepharis obmitrata, Paramyrothecium salvadorae on twigs of Salvadora persica, Preussia procaviicola on dung of Procavia sp., Sordaria equicola on zebra dung, Volutella salvadorae on stems of Salvadora persica. Netherlands, Entoloma ammophilum on sandy soil, Entoloma pseudocruentatum on nutrient poor(acid)soil, Entoloma pudens on plant debris, amongst grasses. [...]Leslie W.S. de Freitas and colleagues express their gratitude to Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for scholarships provided to Leslie Freitas and for the research grant provided to André Luiz Santiago; their contribution was financed by the projects ‘Diversity of Mucoromycotina in the different ecosystems of the Atlantic Rainforest of Pernambuco’ (FACEPE–First Projects Program PPP/ FACEPE/CNPq–APQ–0842-2.12/14) and ‘Biology of conservation of fungi s.l. in areas of Atlantic Forest of Northeast Brazil’ (CNPq/ICMBio 421241/ 2017-9) H.B. Lee was supported by the Graduate Program for the Undiscovered Taxa of Korea (NIBR202130202). The study of O.V. Morozova, E.F. Malysheva, V.F. Malysheva, I.V. Zmitrovich, and L.B. Kalinina was carried out within the framework of a research project of the Komarov Botanical Institute RAS (АААА-А19-119020890079-6) using equipment of its Core Facility Centre ‘Cell and Molecular Technologies in Plant Science’. The work of O. V. Morozova, L.B. Kalinina, T. Yu. Svetasheva, and E.A. Zvyagina was financially supported by Russian Foundation for Basic Research project no. 20-04-00349. E.A. Zvyagina and T.Yu. Svetasheva are grateful to A.V. Alexandrova, A.E. Kovalenko, A.S. Baykalova for the loan of specimens, T.Y. James, E.F. Malysheva and V.F. Malysheva for sequencing. J.D. Reyes acknowledges B. Dima for comparing the holotype sequence of Cortinarius bonachei with the sequences in his database. A. Mateos and J.D. Reyes acknowledge L. Quijada for reviewing the phylogeny and S. de la Peña- Lastra and P. Alvarado for their support and help. Vladimir I. Kapitonov and colleagues are grateful to Brigitta Kiss for help with their molecular studies. This study was conducted under research projects of the Tobolsk Complex Scientific Station of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (N АААА-А19-119011190112-5). E. Larsson acknowledges the Swedish Taxonomy Initiative, SLU Artdatabanken, Uppsala (dha.2019.4.3-13). The study of D.B. Raudabaugh and colleagues was supported by the Schmidt Science Fellows, in partnership with the Rhodes Trust. Gregorio Delgado is grateful to Michael Manning and Kamash Pillai (Eurofins EMLab P&K) for provision of laboratory facilities. Jose G. Maciá-Vicente acknowledges support from the German Research Foundation under grant MA7171/1-1, and from the Landes-Offensive zur Entwicklung Wissenschaftlich-ökonomischer Exzellenz (LOEWE) of the state of Hesse within the framework of the Cluster for Integrative Fungal Research (IPF). Thanks are also due to the authorities of the Cabañeros National Park and Los Alcornocales Natural Park for granting the collection permit and for support during field work. The study of Alina V. Alexandrova was carried out as part of the Scientific Project of the State Order of the Government of Russian Federation to Lomonosov Moscow State University No. 121032300081-7. Michał Gorczak was financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education through the Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw intramural grant DSM 0117600- 13. M. Gorczak acknowledges M. Klemens for sharing a photo of the Białowieża Forest logging site and M. Senderowicz for help with preparing the illustration. Ivona Kautmanová and D. Szabóová were funded by the Operational Program of Research and Development and co-financed with the European Fund for Regional Development (EFRD). ITMS 26230120004: ‘Building of research and development infrastructure for investigation of genetic biodiversity of organisms and joining IBOL initiative’. Ishika Bera, Aniket Ghosh, Jorinde Nuytinck and Annemieke Verbeken are grateful to the Director, Botanical Survey of India (Kolkata), Head of the Department of Botany & Microbiology & USIC Dept. HNB Garhwal University, Srinagar, Garhwal for providing research facilities. Ishika Bera and Aniket Ghosh acknowledge the staff of the forest department of Arunachal Pradesh for facilitating the macrofungal surveys to the restricted areas. Sergey Volobuev was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (RSF project N 19-77- 00085). Aleksey V. Kachalkin and colleagues were supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant No. 19-74-10002). The study of Anna M. Glushakova was carried out as part of the Scientific Project of the State Order of the Government of Russian Federation to Lomonosov Moscow State University No. 121040800174-6. Tracey V. Steinrucken and colleagues were supported by AgriFutures Australia (Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation), through funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, as part of its Rural Research and Development for Profit program (PRJ-010527). Neven Matočec and colleagues thank the Croatian Science Foundation for their financial support under the project grant HRZZ-IP-2018-01-1736 (ForFungiDNA). Ana Pošta thanks the Croatian Science Foundation for their support under the grant HRZZ-2018-09-7081. The research of Milan Spetik and co-authors was supported by Internal Grant of Mendel University in Brno No. IGAZF/ 2021-SI1003. K.C. Rajeshkumar thanks SERB, the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India for providing financial support under the project CRG/2020/000668 and the Director, Agharkar Research Institute for providing research facilities. Nikhil Ashtekar thanks CSIR-HRDG, INDIA, for financial support under the SRF fellowship (09/670(0090)/2020-EMRI), and acknowledges the support of the DIC Microscopy Facility, established by Dr Karthick Balasubramanian, B&P (Plants) Group, ARI, Pune. The research of Alla Eddine Mahamedi and co-authors was supported by project No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_017/0002334, Czech Republic. Tereza Tejklová is thanked for providing useful literature. A. Polhorský and colleagues were supported by the Operational Program of Research and Development and co-financed with the European fund for Regional Development (EFRD), ITMS 26230120004: Building of research and development infrastructure for investigation of genetic biodiversity of organisms and joining IBOL initiative. Yu Pei Tan and colleagues thank R. Chen for her technical support. Ernest Lacey thanks the Cooperative Research Centres Projects scheme (CRCPFIVE000119) for its support. Suchada Mongkolsamrit and colleagues were financially supported by the Platform Technology Management Section, National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC), Project Grant No. P19-50231. Dilnora Gouliamova and colleagues were supported by a grant from the Bulgarian Science Fund (KP-06-H31/19). The research of Timofey A. Pankratov was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant No. 19-04-00297a). Gabriel Moreno and colleagues wish to express their gratitude to L. Monje and A. Pueblas of the Department of Drawing and Scientific Photography at the University of Alcalá for their help in the digital preparation of the photographs, and to J. Rejos, curator of the AH herbarium, for his assistance with the specimens examined in the present study. Vit Hubka was supported by the Charles University Research Centre program No. 204069. Alena Kubátová was supported by The National Programme on Conservation and Utilization of Microbial Genetic Resources Important for Agriculture (Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic). The Kits van Waveren Foundation (Rijksherbariumfonds Dr E. Kits van Waveren, Leiden, Netherlands) contributed substantially to the costs of sequencing and travelling expenses for M. Noordeloos. The work of B. Dima was supported by the ÚNKP-20-4 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology from the source of the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund, and by the ELTE Thematic Excellence Programme 2020 supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office of Hungary (TKP2020-IKA-05). The Norwegian Entoloma studies received funding from the Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre (NBIC), and the material was partly sequenced through NorBOL. Gunnhild Marthinsen and Katriina Bendiksen (Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Norway) are acknowledged for performing the main parts of the Entoloma barcoding work. Asunción Morte is grateful to AEI/FEDER, UE (CGL2016-78946-R) and Fundación Séneca - Agencia de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Región de Murcia (20866/PI/18) for financial support. Vladimír Ostrý was supported by the Ministry of Health, Czech Republic - conceptual development of research organization (National Institute of Public Health – NIPH, IN 75010330). Konstanze Bensch (Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, Utrecht) is thanked for correcting the spelling of various Latin epithets.Peer reviewe

Notes for genera: basal clades of Fungi (including Aphelidiomycota, Basidiobolomycota, Blastocladiomycota, Calcarisporiellomycota, Caulochytriomycota, Chytridiomycota, Entomophthoromycota, Glomeromycota, Kickxellomycota, Monoblepharomycota, Mortierellomycota, Mucoromycota, Neocallimastigomycota, Olpidiomycota, Rozellomycota and Zoopagomycota)

Compared to the higher fungi (Dikarya), taxonomic and evolutionary studies on the basal clades of fungi are fewer in number. Thus, the generic boundaries and higher ranks in the basal clades of fungi are poorly known. Recent DNA based taxonomic studies have provided reliable and accurate information. It is therefore necessary to compile all available information since basal clades genera lack updated checklists or outlines. Recently, Tedersoo et al. (MycoKeys 13:1--20, 2016) accepted Aphelidiomycota and Rozellomycota in Fungal clade. Thus, we regard both these phyla as members in Kingdom Fungi. We accept 16 phyla in basal clades viz. Aphelidiomycota, Basidiobolomycota, Blastocladiomycota, Calcarisporiellomycota, Caulochytriomycota, Chytridiomycota, Entomophthoromycota, Glomeromycota, Kickxellomycota, Monoblepharomycota, Mortierellomycota, Mucoromycota, Neocallimastigomycota, Olpidiomycota, Rozellomycota and Zoopagomycota. Thus, 611 genera in 153 families, 43 orders and 18 classes are provided with details of classification, synonyms, life modes, distribution, recent literature and genomic data. Moreover, Catenariaceae Couch is proposed to be conserved, Cladochytriales Mozl.-Standr. is emended and the family Nephridiophagaceae is introduced

Antioxidant and Antifungal Properties of Cinnamon, Cloves, <i>Melia azedarach</i> L. and <i>Ocimum gratissimum</i> L. Extracts against <i>Fusarium oxysporum</i> Isolated from Infected Vegetables in Mauritius

Background: Fusarium species, a group of economically destructive phytopathogens, are poorly studied in Mauritius where agriculture holds much significance. Furthermore, the increasing popularity of organic farming has prompted interest in alternatives to chemical fungicides. Methods: After gaining an overview of Fusarium prevalence in Mauritius fields through a survey, the pathogen was isolated from infected crops and identified based on morphological and molecular characteristics. Methanol and water extracts were then prepared from Melia azedarach, Ocimum gratissimum, cinnamon and cloves before determining their phytochemical profiles. Additionally, the antioxidant and antifungal effects of different concentrations of aqueous extracts were assessed. Results: The isolate was confirmed as Fusarium oxysporum, and cloves inhibited its growth by up to 100%, especially at 60 and 90 g/L, with the results being significantly higher than those of the synthetic fungicide mancozeb. Over 50% inhibition was also noted for cinnamon and Ocimum gratissimum, and these effects could be linked to the flavonoids, phenols and terpenoids in the extracts. Conclusion: This study presented the aqueous extracts of cloves, cinnamon and Ocimum gratissimum as potential alternatives to chemical fungicides. It also confirmed the prevalence of Fusarium infection in Mauritius fields, thereby highlighting the need for additional studies on the pathogen

Reviewing the use of chitosan and polydopamine for electrochemical sensing

Biopolymers possess highly favorable properties for electrochemical biosensing such as their inherent biocompatibility, inexpensive nature, and strong interfacial adhesion. In this minireview, we will focus on chitosan and polydopamine, two of the most commonly used biopolymers, for electrochemical sensing applications. Chitosan is a polysaccharide that exhibits high chemical resistance, offers straightforward modification and cross-linking, and possesses antibacterial properties and mucoadhesion. Polydopamine has the benefit of universal adhesion, in addition to the ability to form self-assembled structures. We will demonstrate how the unique structural and electrochemical features of these biopolymers can be used in a range of electrochemical biosensing platforms