INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LIFE SCIENCES

1-6

Authors: Hajirnis Sarita and Mishra Raj

The wood rotting Hymenochaetaceous fungi were collected from ‘Yeoor Hills’ situated in the city of Thane, Maharashtra, India in the monsoon months, June to October of the year 2014 and identified on the basis of macroscopical and microscpoical characters. Three species of Phellinus namely, P. allardi, P. discipes and P. linteus and one species each of Coltricia cinnamomea and Inonotus tabacinus were recorded for which an artificial key for the three genera was prepared and similarly for the three species of Phellinus.

13-18

Authors: Khendkar Bhagyashri C and Purandare Krupa A

Fungal spoilage of food and feed is a common and global phenomenon. The global food industry sector is under constant pressure from both consumers and regulatory bodies to provide high quality fresh food with minimal processing. The consumers prefer safe preservative-free products. Fungal spoilage is the main cause of economic loss in the bakery industry. In present study, the antifungal starter culture was developed using selected antifungal lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and was used for bread preservation. The best biopreservation effect was obtained with 50% antifungal slurry SL-AL2 containing Lactobacillus ingluviei against Penicillium sp., which was more effective than 0.4% Calcium propionate (Pca), a common preservative used in bakery products. The antifungal starter culture SL-AL2 extended the shelf life of packaged bread to 19 days, more than 4 times longer shelf life than breads prepared with only 0.4% PCa.

25-32

Authors: Tutakne Neeraja* and Golatkar Vikas 25-32

The weeds, Lantana camara Linn. and Parthenium hysterophorus Linn. were subjected to different solvent extractions to prepare crude extracts. The antifungal activity of these crude extracts was tested against two plant pathogenic fungi, viz., Alternaria alternata and Fusarium oxysporum and also against three animal pathogenic (dermatophytic) fungi, viz., Candida albicans, Microsporum gypsium and Trichophyton mentagrophytus. All the extracts efficiently inhibited the growth of all the fungi understudy.

41-46

Authors: Ingle MR and Mishra RL

Trichoderma erinaceum was isolated from decomposing coconut coir and was screened for its ability to produce laccase enzymes. Production of extracellular laccase enzyme from Trichoderma erinaceum was carried out by submerged fermentation. The laccase enzyme was partially purified by acetone precipitation from the culture filtrates of Trichoderma erinaceum. SDS-PAGE analysis showed the purified laccase to be a monomeric protein of 38 kDa. Laccase assay was carried out using ABTS as substrate. Trichoderma erinaceum exhibited laccase activity both under constitutive and copper induced conditions. Copper sulphate with 300 μm concentration added to the media highly induced production of laccase.

52-56

Authors: Usmani Asra and Sashirekha S*

Fungi occupy many different ecological niches. Fungi are well known to tolerate and detoxify metals by several mechanisms including extra- and intracellular precipitation, and active uptake. In the present paper soil fungi is isolated from forest soil samples from different locations of SGNP. Fusarium oxysporum was examined for its pH tolerance, Metal tolerance and biosorption capacity to Zn and Pb metals. The effect of the metal pollutants on the fungi and response of the fungi was analysed using ICP AES. The changes in the mycelial characteristics were observed. Fusarium oxysporum proves to be a potential candidate for bioremediation

61-65

Authors: Kumthekar Shrutika and Pius Jessy

The Four-o'clock plant, Mirabilis jalapa L.of family Nyctaginaceae is a popular ornamental plant grown worldwide for the beauty of its flowers and sweet fragrance. The plant is rich in many active compounds and has been used in traditional medicine due to the presence of these biomolecules of pharmacological importance. Evaluatation of antifungal activity of leaf, flower, root and seed of four cultivars (white, pink, yellow and multicolour flower) of M. jalapa on selected fungi –Aspergillus niger and Fusarium oxysporum was carried out by Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) and effect of extracts on spouraltion. The results of this study showed that extracts from all parts of four cultivars of M. jalapa were very active against selected fungi. MIC of the extracts was found to be in range of 11- 15 mg/ml. The extracts also significantly inhibited the sporulation in selected fungi. Among the cultivars Pink flower Cultivar and Multicolour flower cultivar and White flower cultivar showed potent antifungal activity against F.oxysporum compared to that of A.niger.

69-73

Authors: Ayare Komal S

The mutually beneficial relation between feeder roots of plants and fungi is called ‘Mycorrhiza’. The term ‘Mycorrhiza’ was coined by Frank in 1885 to describe symbiotic association of plant roots and fungi. The word ‘Mycorrhiza’ originate from two greek words ‘Mycos’ meaning fungus and rhiza meaning root. Arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) are symbiotic association formed between plants and soil fungi that play an essential role in plant growth, plant protection and soil quality. There are reports providing evidence that association with AM fungi facilitates better nutrient uptake enhancing growth in leguminous plants. Hence to exploit these biological tools, pot experiments were carried out and response on growth, productivity and nutritional aspects of Vigna catgang Walp. were studied. AM inoculums brought from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University containing the mixture of Glomus species was directly used as an inoculum to study the effect of AM on Vigna catgang Walp. Pot experiments were conducted in mixture of sterilized garden soil and sterilized sand in the ratio 3:1. The experiment was conducted with AM (treated) and non AM [control] plants of Vigna catgang Walp.. Phosphate phosphorus content, chlorophyll content, Alpha amino acid content, nitrate content and nitrate reductase activity, soluble protein content, calcium and magnesium content in the leaves and fruits of treated and control plants of Vigna catgang Walp.. were estimated at an interval of 15 days after sowing the seeds (DAS), 30DAS, 45DAS and at 60DAS and the percent of productivity was checked. The association of AM fungi enhances the growth in all the treated plants. The significantly high growth rate and yield was observed in treated plants than control plants. Significantly higher amount of above mentioned aspects was observed in the leaves of treated plants of Vigna catgang Walp. than that in control ones.

77-80

Authors: Pawar NB, Rathod LR*, and Suryawanshi NS

Fungi associated with seeds of Priyanka cultivars of rice was isolated by Agar plate, blotter paper methods and seed washates. A total of 40 rice seed samples were obtained from different region of Konkan. Totally eleven genera of fungi viz., Pyricularia oryzae, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Fusarium oxysporum, Bipolaris oryzae, Alternraria alternata, Curvularia lunata, Cercospora janseana, Curvularia lunata, Ephelis oryzae, Rhizoctonia solani, Scrocladium oryzae, Sclerotium rolfsii. Comprising 13 species were found to be associated with the rice seed sample. Among them the most dominant Pyricularia oryzae, Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus flavus which are associated with higest percent incidence followed by Fusarium oxysporum. A least percent incidence were observed with Scrocladium oryzae and Sclerotium rolfsii and Ephelis oryzae.

85-88

Authors: Vaidya Vinit, Yadav Udaybhan, Gupta Deepak, Bhat Lalita and Papaiya Shruti

It has been proved that the magnetic field has positive impact on biological activities to accelerate rates of most of the reactions such as photosynthesis, respiration, blood circulation etc. When water is magnetized, the ions of the water are oriented as per the magnetic field and they acquire magnetic properties. This water can be used in various processes to study the effect of magnetic field on the biological activities. In the present studies, a bar magnet with known power of 70 Gauss was used to magnetize the distilled water, which was used with the parameter of varying temperature for preparation of Potato Dextrose Broth (PDB) for inoculation of Penicillium chrysogenum. The effect of magnetized water treated at different temperature on growth of Penicillium chrysogenum and production of mycotoxins by the fungal organism was studied.

98-101

Authors: Patil Vaishali G, Sonawane Adhiraj A, Gaikwad Shraddha N and Saha Moitreyee

Mobile phones have become an indispensable tool across all age groups in professional and social life. The potential role of mobile phones as an exogenous source of infection is a major concern. The objective of this study was to explore the prevalence of fungal contamination on mobile phones of various food vendors on road side food shops in vicinity of VPM’s B. N. Bandodkar College of Science, Thane. These roadside food stalls are popular and are frequented by the students, staff members of the college and the public. Twenty swab samples were randomly collected from the roadside food vendors and were cultured to observe the presence of fungal microflora. The predominant fungi isolated were Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Mucor indicus, Rhizopus stolonifer, Penicillium sp., Candida albicans and Cladosporum sp.

107-110

Authors: Kushwaha Vinodkumar and Hajirnis Sarita

Fungi are one of the world’s least studied life forms and there are presumably hundreds of species remaining to be found in the form of bioluminescence. Bioluminescence is a natural light emitting phenomenon that is emitted by several living organism, verified in 71 of 100,000 described species in the kingdom fungi. Bioluminescence results when energy from a chemical reaction is released as light, this occurs when an enzyme, such as luciferase catalyzes the oxidation of an organic molecule luciferin. These bioluminescent fungi are applied for biotechnological applications such as Luciferase systems in genetic engineering as reporter genes, environment monitoring, heavy metal extraction and many more. The aim of this review is to address the current studies on bioluminescent fungi and their future applications.

116-118

Authors: Kiran Maurya* and Unnati Padalia

Beta-galactosidase enzyme catalyses conversion of lactose to its monosaccharides. The importance and use of fungal Beta-gaalctosidase is mentioned in this review article. Immobilisation of Beta-galactosidase using convanalin A, chitosan, calcium alginate, starch alginate, barium alginate and cobalt alginate entrapment beads were discussed here. For all these immobilisation techniques enzyme activity and stability of the immobilised enzyme complexes were reported by the researches. Along with this, therapeutic effect of the Concanavalin A, calcium-starch alginate enzyme complex is studied and reported by researchers. The hydrolysis of milk and whey using immobilised Beta-galactosidase are also reported and the maximum concentration of glucose after enzyme treatment was around 1404 mg/decilitre after 15 minutes of enzyme treatment.