Project description:Considering the huge economic loss caused by postharvest diseases, the identification and prevention of citrus postharvest diseases is vital to the citrus industry. In 2018, 16 decayed citrus fruit from four citrus varieties-Satsuma mandarin (Citrus unshiu), Ponkan (Citrus reticulata Blanco cv. Ponkan), Nanfeng mandarin (Citrus reticulata cv. nanfengmiju), and Sugar orange (Citrus reticulata Blanco)-showing soft rot and sogginess on their surfaces and covered with white mycelia were collected from storage rooms in seven provinces. The pathogens were isolated and the pathogenicity of the isolates was tested. The fungal strains were identified as Lasiodiplodia pseudotheobromae based on their morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analyses using the internal transcribed spacer regions (ITS), translation elongation factor 1-α gene (TEF), and beta-tubulin (TUB) gene sequences. The strains could infect wounded citrus fruit and cause decay within two days post inoculation, but could not infect unwounded fruit. To our knowledge, this is the first report of citrus fruit decay caused by L. pseudotheobromae in China.
Project description:Cost-effective, fibrinolytic agents possessing least or no antigenic properties are much in demand for their prospective use as clot busters in thrombolytic therapy. The present communication explores the potential of 22 endophytic Botryosphaeria species isolated from stem of Aegle marmelos for their fibrinolytic potential. Only nine fungal isolates exhibited proteolytic activity out of which only four possessed plasminogen-independent fibrinolytic activity. The endophytic fungal isolate #1088 AMSTITYEL showed maximum in vitro proteolytic and fibrinolytic activity with a halo formation of 153.86 and 113.04 mm2, respectively. The partially purified protein exhibited a fibrinolytic activity equivalent to 6.51 U/ml of plasmin. SDS-PAGE of the dialysed fraction of #1088 AMSTITYEL resolved into six bands ranging from 26 to 80 kDa. Fibrin zymogram exhibited that a single band of molecular size ~80 KDa possessing the fibrinolytic activity. Furthermore, the bioactive isolate #1088 AMSTITYEL was identified as Lasiodiplodia pseudotheobromae using classical and molecular taxonomic tools.