Unidentified black spots (or stains) appeared on the plaster walls of the Takamatsuzuka and Kitora Tumuli in the village of Asuka, Nara Prefecture, Japan. Public attention was drawn to the biodeterioration of the colorful 1,300-year-old murals. A total of 46 isolates of Acremonium sect. Gliomastix were obtained from various samples (mainly black spots) of the Takamatsuzuka Tumulus (TT) (sampling period, May 2004–December 2006) and the Kitora Tumulus (KT) (June 2004–May 2007). These isolates were assignable to four known taxa and a new species in the ‘series Murorum’ sensu W. Gams as inferred from the integrated analysis of phenotypic and genotypic (i.e., ITS and 28S rDNA-D1/D2 sequences) characters: these were Acremonium masseei, A. murorum, A. felinum comb. nov. with the neotype designation, A. polychromum, and A. tumulicola sp. nov., which have been accommodated in the validated series Murorum in the section Gliomastix. The black spots on the murals of the TT and KT were caused mainly by A. masseei and A. murorum, respectively.

A rachis of the fossil filicalean fern Botryopteris antiqua containing abundant septate hyphae with clamp connections is preserved in a late Visean (Mississippian; ~330 Ma) chert from Esnost (Autun Basin) in central France. Largely unbranched tubular hyphae pass from cell to cell, but may sometimes produce a branch from a clamp connection. Other clamp-bearing hyphae occur clustered in individual cells or small groups of adjacent host cells. These hyphae may be tubular, catenulate with numerous hyphal swellings, or they may display a combination of both. The Visean hyphae with clamp connections predate Palaeancistrus martinii, the heretofore oldest direct fossil evidence of Basidiomycota, by some 25 Ma.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation (ATMT) has been successfully applied to the violet root-rot fungus Helicobasidium mompa, which is the causal agent of violet root-rot disease. The A. tumefaciens strains carried a binary plasmid vector containing the hygromycin B phosphotransferase gene (hph) controlled by the heterologous fungal Agaricus bisporus P-gpd (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase) promoter and the trpC terminator. The transformation system was optimized using defined cocultivation conditions. When H. mompa strain V17 was cocultivated with A. tumefaciens strain AGL-1 using 5% agar, we obtained more hygromycin-resistant colonies than with strains EHA105 or MAFF301222 using 2% agar. In addition, our results suggest that the activated carbon is necessary in ATMT to reduce background growth of H. mompa. The presence of the hph gene in transformants was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and single-copy integration of the marker gene was demonstrated by Southern blot analysis. Thus, the ATMT system can be considered a promising tool for insertional mutagenesis studies of H. mompa

In the present study, anaerobic fungi were isolated from different ruminants and non-ruminants; i.e., cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, wild bluebulls, elephants, deer, and zebras; and were identified as Anaeromyces, Orpinomyces, Caecomyces, Piromyces, and Neocallimastix sp., based on their morphological characteristics. These isolates possessed significant in vitro hydrolytic enzyme activities; however, an isolate of Caecomyces sp. from elephant was found to exhibit maximum activity, i.e., filter paper cellulase (Fpase; 21.4 mIU/ml), carboxymethyl cellulose (CMCase; 15.1 mIU/ml), cellobiase (37.4 mIU/ml), and xylanase (26.0 mIU/ml). Besides, this isolate also showed the significantly highest ability to digest plant cell-wall contents in vitro. The in vitro dry matter digestibility increased from 45.1 to 48.9% after 48 h of incubation, and the plant cellwall contents, in terms of neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber, decreased from 64.2 to 61.3% and from 31.3 to 29.6%, respectively. These results indicate that such fibrolytic ruminal fungal strains are prevalent in wild herbivores such as elephants, as well as in other ruminants and non-ruminants, and could be exploited as microbial feed additives for improved nutrition and productivity in domesticated ruminants.

Ophiocordyceps pulvinata, a pathogen of ants, is formally described as a new species. Genus level designation of this species is difficult due to several apparently conflicting morphological and ecological characters. Affinity with Ophiocordyceps is suggested by the dark color stroma and ascospore morphology. However, the species was included in a book of entomopathogenic fungi of Japan as Torrubiella sp. due to the production of perithecia on an astipitate stroma. Phylogenetic analyses of molecular data support a close relationship with O. unilateralis, a finding consistent with morphological characteristics of the color, asci and ascospores and ecological traits of host affiliation. Thus, O. pulvinata represents another example of the loss of stipe for the hypocrealean arthropod pathogenic fungi and highlights the utility of asci and ascospore morphology as taxonomically informative characters of closely related taxa.

A degradation experiment on dibenzo-p-dioxin (DD) and 2,7-dichlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (2,7-DCDD) was carried out using basidiomycetous fungi belonging to the genera Coprinus, Coprinellus, and Coprinopsis. Some species showed a high rate of decrease in DD for the 2-week test period. Among them, Coprinellus disseminatus showed the highest ability to decrease the DD level, close to 100% by the end of 2 weeks. Further examination showed that Coprinellus disseminatus and Coprinellus micaceus, belonging to the genus Coprinellus, were able to metabolize 2,7-DCDD to a monohydroxylated compound, probably mediated by the P450 system. The metabolism of chlorinated DD by fungi capable of living in soil conditions is reported here for the first time.

An undetermined Armillaria species was collected on Amami-Oshima, a subtropical island of Japan. The phylogenetic position of the Armillaria sp. was determined using sequences of the elongation factor-1α (EF-1α) gene and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region (ITS1-5.8S-ITS2) of ribosomal DNA (rDNA). The phylogenetic analyses based on EF-1α and ITS sequences showed that this species differs from known Japanese taxa of Armillaria. The sequences of this species and A. novaezelandiae from Southeast Asia were contained in a strongly supported clade, which was adjacent to a well-supported sister clade containing A. novae-zelandiae from Australia and New Zealand.

In this study, two plots in a secondary and another two in planted Pinus densiflora stands were exposed to different forest treatments, and the ectomycorrhizal (EM) biomass and its ergosterol content was measured for a year. The unmanaged plot in the secondary stand had greater EM biomass than those in any other plots. Whereas understory cutting had less effect on EM biomass, litter and humus removal decreased pine EM biomass and its ergosterol content, suggesting that such forest treatment alters EM biomass and its structure.

Cytochromes are membrane-bound hemoproteins responsible for the generation of ATP via the electron transport system to fuel the metabolic processes of the organism for their growth. This study reports the properties of cytochromes present in the isolated lichenized fungi of the cultured lichen Usnea ghattensis under optimized conditions. The fungal partner of the cultured lichen Usnea ghattensis contains a, b and c types of cytochromes. The concentrations of a, b and c type cytochromes were found to be significantly high (0.0967, 0.0900, and 0.1030 mM/ mg protein, respectively) in the isolated fungal symbiont of cultured lichen grown in malt-yeast extract medium supplemented with 0.01 mol/l sucrose and 0.01 mol/l polyethylglycol. The results suggest that supplementation of additional carbon sources may play a role in optimizing the growth via activating the cytochrome respiratory system in lichenized fungi.

Corticioid fungi are one of the major groups of wood-inhabiting fungi, and they are mainly confined to the orders Corticiales, Trechisporales and Atheliales among Basidiomycetes. Hydnoid fungi are aphyllophoroid fungi with spine- or tooth-like hymenophore, and most species of them are in the orders of Russulales and Thelephorales. Many hydnoid fungi are wood-inhabiting, but some of them are mycorrhizas. Corticioid fungi and many hydnoid fungi have a similar ecology in forest ecosystems. The current knowledge of corticioid and hydnoid fungi in China is summarized, and totally 506 species are listed alphabetically. A new species, Stereum lithocarpi, is described and illustrated. Two species, Dichostereum boreale and Thanatephorus fusisporus, are new to Chinese fungal flora, and a condensed description of these species is given.