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There were 166 de-SPAC transactions between 2019and July 15, 2021, and 23 of those transactions resulted in privatesecurities litigation.14 SPAC-related litigation can also involve unique exposures. Conclusion The full implications to the D&O market caused by the suddenincrease in SPAC popularity by investors, target companies,and, of course, securities litigation plaintiffs are yet to be seen.The insurance coverage issues raised by the unique process ofthe SPAC are largely untested. SPACs, or special purpose acquisition companies, haveexploded in popularity in recent years as an alternative tothe traditional initial public offering (IPO).These "blankcheck" companies, which raise money through an IPO for thespecific purpose of using that money to later acquire an existing,privately held business, are viewed as reducing some of the costsof going public and allowing private companies quicker access topublic markets. Because a de-SPAC transaction is anticipated at theoutset of a SPAC, tail coverage is typically negotiated with theinitial SPAC D&O policy. [Extracted from the article]

The last few years have seen a steady rise in the number of securities class action lawsuits. The recent increase in securities class action filings has been driven, at least in significant part, by two types of lawsuits: merger-objection and event-driven securities litigation. Of the 341 securities class actions filed between January and September 2019, 204 were more traditional lawsuits alleging violations of U.S. securities laws.16 This figure suggests a trend to a year-end total of 272 standard securities lawsuits, which is, by historical standards, an extraordinary number of securities lawsuit filings and would be higher than the annual total number of securities lawsuit filings in any year during the period 2003 to 2015. Event-driven securities lawsuits have a higher dismissal rate than more traditional securities lawsuits, with a dismissal rate approaching 60 percent.[28] This, of course, means that 40 percent of event-driven securities filings survive a motion to dismiss. [Extracted from the article]

The last few years have seen a steady rise in the number of securities class action lawsuits. In 2018, securities lawsuit filings reached their highest level since 2001.[3] New filings have doubled since 2014, when there were 218 federal court securities class action filings, and filings had been relatively stable since 2007. Of the 341 securities class actions filed between January and September 2019, 204 were more traditional lawsuits alleging violations of U.S. securities laws.[16] This figure suggests a trend to a year-end total of 272 standard securities lawsuits, which is, by historical standards, an extraordinary number of securities lawsuit filings and would be higher than the annual total number of securities lawsuit filings in any year during the period 2003 to 2015. Event-driven securities lawsuits have a higher dismissal rate than more traditional securities lawsuits, with a dismissal rate approaching 60 percent.[28] This, of course, means that 40 percent of event-driven securities filings survive a motion to dismiss. [Extracted from the article]

Endo-β1,4-glucanases in glycosyl hydrolase family 5 (GH5) are ubiquitous enzymes in the multicellular fungi and are common components of enzyme cocktails for biomass conversion. We recently showed that an endo-glucanase of subfamily 5 of GH5 (GH5_5) from Sporotrichum thermophile (StCel5A) was more effective at releasing glucose from pretreated corn stover, when part of an eight-component synthetic enzyme mixture, compared to its closely related counterpart from Trichoderma reesei, TrCel5A. StCel5A and TrCel5A belong to different clades of GH5_5 (GH5_5_1 and GH5_5_2, respectively). To test whether the superior activity of StCel5A was a general property of all enzymes in the GH5_5_2 clade, StCel5A, TrCel5A, and two additional members of each subfamily were expressed in a common host that had been engineered to suppress its native cellulases ( T. reesei Δ xyr1) and compared against each other alone on pure substrates, in synthetic mixtures on pure substrates, and against each other in synthetic mixtures on real biomass. The results indicated that superiority is a unique property of StCel5A and not of GH5_5_2 generally. The six Cel5A enzymes had significant differences in relative activities on different substrates, in specific activities, and in sensitivities to mannan inhibition. Importantly, the behavior of the six endo-glucanases on pure cellulose substrates did not predict their behavior in combination with other cellulolytic enzymes on a real lignocellulosic biomass substrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The secreted glycoside hydrolase family 29 (GH29) α-L-fucosidase from plant pathogenic fungus Fusarium graminearum (FgFCO1) actively releases fucose from the xyloglucan fragment. We solved crystal structures of two active-site conformations, i.e. open and closed, of apoFgFCO1 and an open complex with product fucose at atomic resolution. The closed conformation supports catalysis by orienting the conserved general acid/base Glu-288 nearest the predicted glycosidic position, whereas the open conformation possibly represents an unreactive state with Glu-288 positioned away from the catalytic center. A flexible loop near the substrate binding site containing a non-conserved GGSFT sequence is ordered in the closed but not the open form. We also identified a novel C-terminal βγ-crystallin domain in FgFCO1 devoid of calcium binding motif whose homologous sequences are present in various glycoside hydrolase families. N-Glycosylated FgFCO1 adopts a monomeric state as verified by solution small angle x-ray scattering in contrast to reported multimeric fucosidases. Steady-state kinetics shows that FgFCO1 prefers α1,2 over α1,3/4 linkages and displays minimal activity with p-nitrophenyl fucoside with an acidic pH optimum of 4.6. Despite a retaining GH29 family fold, the overall specificity of FgFCO1 most closely resembles inverting GH95 α-fucosidase, which displays the highest specificity with two natural substrates harboring the Fucα1-2Gal glycosidic linkage, a xyloglucan-derived nonasaccharide, and 2'-fucosyllactose. Furthermore, FgFCO1 hydrolyzes H-disaccharide (lacking a +2 subsite sugar) at a rate 10³-fold slower than 2'-fucosyllactose. We demonstrated the structurally dynamic active site of FgFCO1 with flexible general acid/base Glu, a common feature shared by several bacterial GH29 fucosidases to various extents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the roles of new religious movements (NRM) and other forms of alternative religiosity in Chinese society. Particular focus is given to the Chinese government's regulation of religious life and to the historical origins of many traditions which are not sanctioned by the government. The author evaluates the effects of regulation and suppression on the strength of these religious movements. Topics discussed include folk religion, sectarianism, and syncretic movements.

The purpose of this essay is to explore Rev. Ike's particular form of positive confession theology and self-representation in relationship to his own professed post-black identity. By fusing the conversionist elements of his Pentecostal roots with the Spiritualist teachings of metaphysics and New Thought philosophy, Rev. Ike offered African Americans a theological vision of attaining material wealth while effacing what he and many of his followers regarded as the multiple negative cultural markers that blackness signified. This was not simply a theology that was preached from the pulpit; it was packaged and presented within media frames. Therefore, this essay will equally unveil and demystify the multiple aesthetic representations and conspicuous displays deployed by Eikerenkoetter, which reflect well-worn strategies on the part of the oppressed that connect understandings of citizenship and freedom with hyperconsumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the dialogical relationship between mass media and black religion, the cultural connection and theological consistency between racial equality and the gospel, and the consequences of religious broadcasting.

frican American megachurches are part of a larger trend in American Protestantism reflecting the ecclesial shifts that have taken place in America during the final quarter of the previous century. There are, however, historical and religious distinctions that differentiate African American congregations from this broader, largely evangelical phenomenon. The purpose of this article, then, is to introduce and analyze African American megachurches in such a way that they are historically situated, racially located, and ecclesiastically differentiated. This article addresses the precipitous rise of black megachurch congregations in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries and ethically examines shared institutional and ideational values. And it argues that the professional identity, mass culture compatibility, and theological creativity that broadly define black megachurches represent creative fusions and internal tensions that pose ethical challenges to their congregational missions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equity is central to sustainable development. Yet the vast majority of urban sustainability assessment tools do not address equity concerns. One notable exception is the United States' environmental equity assessment process. However, in many countries no analogy exists. Accordingly, research was undertaken to develop a prototype framework, which would help examine the local environmental equity implications of proposed urban developments within the UK. This paper briefly introduces the role of equity in sustainable development in order to contextualize a discussion on the concept of environmental equity and its assessment. The paper then provides an overview of the framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology adoption in precision agriculture has received considerable attention, while abandonment has received little. Survey data are now available to evaluate adoption and abandonment decisions. Understanding the factors motivating technology adoption and abandonment has implications for educational efforts directed toward improving the efficiency of production inputs and for research and development to improve the value of precision agriculture technologies. The objective of this research was to identify factors motivating the adoption and abandonment of grid soil sampling in precision cotton production. These decisions were evaluated assuming a random utility model. Data were obtained from a 2005 survey of cotton producers in 11 Southeastern states in the USA. Results from limited dependent variable regressions indicate that younger producers who farmed more cotton area, owned more of their cropland, planted larger amounts of non-cotton area, used a computer for farm management and used a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) in the field were more likely to adopt grid soil sampling for cotton precision farming. Results also suggest that producers with more cotton area who owned livestock and adopted management zone soil sampling were more likely to abandon grid soil sampling, while those who used a PDA in the field, used grid soil sampling for more years and followed up grid soil sampling with variable-rate fertilizer application were less likely to abandon grid soil sampling for cotton production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A picture is worth a thousand words. If this is true of a still photograph, how much more of a moving image? A television broadcast? A streaming webcast? Interpreting the theological meaning of mass-produced visual imagery, then, can pose an analytical problem for theologians. This essay offers the theoretical insight of the Birmingham School of Cultural Studies as a helpful hermeneu-tic tool and methodological corrective for Black liberation theologians con-cerned with interpreting the intersections of theology and culture in general, and pop culture forms of religious expression such as televangelism in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: HC-toxin is a cyclic tetrapeptide of structure cyclo(D-Pro-L-Ala-D-Ala-L-Aeo), where Aeo stands for 2-amino-9,10-epoxi-8-oxodecanoic acid. It is a determinant of specificity and virulence in the interaction between the producing fungus, Cochliobolus carbonum, and its host, maize. HC-toxin qualifies as one of the few microbial secondary metabolites whose ecological function in nature is understood. Reaction to C. carbonum and to HC-toxin is controlled in maize by the Hm1 and Hm2 loci. These loci encode HC-toxin reductase, which detoxifies HC-toxin by reducing the 8-carbonyl group of Aeo. HC-toxin is an inhibitor of histone deacetylases (HDACs) in many organisms, including plants, insects, and mammals, but why inhibition of HDACs during infection by C. carbonum leads to disease is not understood. The genes for HC-toxin biosynthesis (collectively known as the TOX2 locus) are loosely clustered over >500kb in C. carbonum. All of the known TOX2 genes are present in multiple, functional copies and are absent from natural toxin non-producing isolates. The central enzyme in HC-toxin biosynthesis is a 570-kDa non-ribosomal synthetase encoded by a 15.7-kb open reading frame. Other genes known to be required for HC-toxin encode alpha and beta subunits of fatty acid synthase, which are presumed to contribute to the synthesis of Aeo; a pathway-specific transcription factor; an efflux carrier; a predicted branched-chain amino acid aminotransferase; and an alanine racemase. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Presents a study to address the requirement for any pectin-degrading ability in pathogenesis by Cochliobolus carbonum. Methodology used to conduct study; Indication of findings; Discussion on results.

Studies the cloning, disruption, and expression of endo-beta,4-xylanase genes from Cochliobolus carbonum. Isolation and disruption of XYL2 and XYL3; Creation and characterization of double and triple xylanase mutants; Characterization of xylanase expression in the wild type and mutants; Growth and pathogenicity of xylanase mutants.

The article highlights developments in the field of alternative dispute resolution in the U.S. Topics discussed include viability of class-wide arbitration following the Supreme Court's rulings in Lamps Plus and Stolt-Nielsen v. Varela, scope and application of the Interstate Commerce Exception to the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), and enforcement of agreements by nonsignatories to contract.

The article addresses developments in alternative dispute resolution in the U.S. Topics discussed include the decision of the Supreme Court to limit classwide arbitration in the case Lamps Plus, Inc. v. Varela, confirmation of the Supreme Court that the interstate transportation workers exception to the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) applies to employees and independent contractors in the case, New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira, and grounds for vacatur of an arbitration award.

The article discusses updates on alternative dispute resolution and arbitration-related decisions issued by U.S. federal and state courts. Topics explored include the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) provisions involved in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, the scope of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) exemption granted in Oliveira v. New Prime, Inc., and the availability of class-action arbitration under a contract addressed in Lamps Plus Inc. v. Varela.

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the systematic review by Kanji and colleagues on the lack of rhythm conversion of new onset atrial fibrillation in critically ill populations outside of cardiac surgery, which was published in the previous issue.

The article presents information about beta glucan, an enzyme that synthesizes a polysaccharide in plant cell walls. It is a major cell wall component in grains, including the barleys used in brewing. Its presence can not only negatively affect fermentation, but can also inhibit the filtration process, leaving beer with an unappealing haze. Thus, it is not surprising that plant breeders have sought to identify the genes that determine how much beta glucan is produced in barley. A region of genomic DNA that controls the production of this polysaccharide in barley grains has been mapped to chromosome 2. To identify the genes and proteins responsible for beta glucan biosynthesis, some researchers have taken advantage of this information and the conserved genome structure between barley and rice, whose genome has been completely sequenced. The cellulose synthase like genes were first identified in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and rice genomes. Sequence analyses indicate that the cellulose synthase superfamily contains multiple subfamilies.

Discusses plant pathogens. Reliance by bacterial pathogens on the 'Type III' secretion system with which they infiltrate virulence proteins directly into the cells of their host; 'Virus-induced gene silencing' mechanism in both animals and plants; Reliance by the coevolution of plants and their microbial pathogens on secondary metabolism; Types of secondary metabolites, including terpenoids, alkaloids and flavonoids; Role of the metabolite avenacin in resistance of oats to certain fungi; Tomatinase mutants of S. lycopersici.

The article discusses several alternative dispute resolution decisions issued by U.S. federal and state courts between October 1, 2016, and September 30, 2017. It highlights sports arbitration and appellate court rulings addressing efforts by nonsignatories seeking to enforce contractual arbitration provisions in contracts executed by other entities.

Alloying platinum with a second metal such as palladium can increase the mass activity of Pt and lower the usage of expensive Pt elements, hence is of great importance for designing highly efficient and cost-effective electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). In this study, monomorphic PtPd alloyed worm-like nanoparticles (PtPd WNPs) with dominant (111) facets were prepared with a facile one-pot approach. The detailed morphology, composition, and surface structure of the PtPd WNPs were investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), selected-area electron diffraction (SAED), energy dispersive spectrum (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), as well as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The prepared PtPd WNPs displayed enhanced electrocatalytic activity and remarkably robust stability toward ORR in both alkaline and acidic media, superior than commercial Pt/C catalysts. This strategy may open a new route to design and prepare advanced electrocatalysts for fuel cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents decision of courts for the award of attorney fees and exemplary damages by arbitrators in cases involving arbitration enforcement and class proceedings in the U.S. Cases include Green Tree Financial Corp. v. Bazzle, Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v. Animal Feeds International Corp., and AT&T Mobility LLC v Concepcion.

Background: HC-toxin, a cyclic tetrapeptide, is a virulence determinant for the plant pathogenic fungus Cochliobolus carbonum. It was recently discovered that another fungus, Alternaria jesenskae, also produces HC-toxin. Results: The major genes (collectively known as AjTOX2) involved in the biosynthesis of HC-toxin were identified from A. jesenskae by genomic sequencing. The encoded orthologous proteins share 75-85% amino acid identity, and the genes for HC-toxin biosynthesis are duplicated in both fungi. The genomic organization of the genes in the two fungi show a similar but not identical partial clustering arrangement. A set of representative housekeeping proteins show a similar high level of amino acid identity between C. carbonum and A. jesenskae, which is consistent with the close relatedness of these two genera within the family Pleosporaceae (Dothideomycetes). Conclusions: This is the first report that the plant virulence factor HC-toxin is made by an organism other than C. carbonum. The genes may have moved by horizontal transfer between the two species, but it cannot be excluded that they were present in a common ancestor and lost from other species of Alternaria and Cochliobolus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The peptide toxins of poisonous Amanita mushrooms are bicyclic octapeptides (amatoxins) or heptapeptides (phallotox ins). In Amanita bisporigera, α-amanitin and phallacidin are synthesized as 35- and 34-amino acid proproteins, respectively, in which the amino acid sequences found in the mature toxins are flanked by conserved amino acid sequences. The presence of invariant Pro residues immediately upstream of the toxin regions and as the last predicted amino acid in the toxin regions themselves suggests that a Prospecific peptidase is responsible for the initial posttranslational processing of the Amanita toxin proproteins. We purified an enzyme from the phalloidin producing mushroom Conocybe albipes that cleaves a synthetic 22-mer phalloidin peptide to release the mature toxin peptide (AWLATCP). Mass spectrometric analysis of the purified pro tein combined with isolation and sequencing of the encoding gene indicates that the responsible processing enzyme is a member of the prolyl oligopeptidase (POP) subfamily of proteases (EC 3.4.21.26). The processing enzyme was able to use the chromogenic POP substrate benzyloxycarbonyl-Gly-Pro-p-nitro-anilide and was inhibited by the specific POP inhibitor benzyl oxycarbonyl-Pro-prolinal. Both Pro bonds in the pro-protein are cleaved by the same enzyme, with the Cterminal Pro bond cleaved first or much faster than the N-terminal Pro bond. Transient accumulation of the N-terminal intermediate indicates that cleavage is not strongly processive. A synthetic peptide rep resenting the phallacidin pro-protein was also cleaved by the POP of C. albipes, but a precursor of amanitin (which is not made by C. albipes) was cleaved inefficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past decade, there has been an increasing gender achievement gap with male students lagging behind their female counterparts on a number of important indicators of school success. This article examines recommendations and strategies for school counselors working with middle school boys to enhance the learning environment, to promote strengths, and to encourage positive attitudes toward academic achievement and future planning. Collaboration with teachers, administrators, parents, and community members as important stakeholders can offer combined resources to promote school success. The strategies described have resulted from a local collaborative action research project conducted by counselor educators and students, the county supervisor of guidance, and middle school counselors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The CREA gene has been implicated in glucose repression in several fungi. The product of this gene, CreA, binds to the promoter region of several enzymes and down-regulates gene expression. An ortholog of CREA was isolated and characterized from the maize pathogenic fungus, Cochliobolus carbonum . The deduced amino acid sequence of the C. carbonum CREA gene is very similar to the CreA proteins of Aspergillus niger , Gibberella fujikuroi , Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Trichoderma reesei , as well as the Mig1 protein of Saccharomyces cerevisiae . And like the other fungal proteins, C. carbonum CreA has two zinc finger regions and a nuclear localization signal. Putative CreA binding sequences were also identified in the 5′ region of three C. carbonum cell wall degrading enzyme genes suggesting that the protein may play a role in the regulatory process that controls these enzymes expression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In genetic crosses, HC-toxin production in the filamentous fungus Cochliobolus carbonum appears to be controlled by a single locus, TOX2. At the molecular level, TOX2 is composed of at least seven duplicated and coregulated genes involved in HC-toxin biosynthesis, export, and regulation. All copies of four of the TOX2 genes were previously mapped within a 540-kb stretch of DNA in strain SB111. Subsequently, an additional three TOX2 genes, TOXE, TOXF, and TOXG, have been discovered. In this paper we have mapped all copies of the new genes, a total of seven, and show that except for one of the two copies of TOXE, which was previously shown to be on a chromosome of 0.7 Mb in strain SB111, they are all linked to the previously known TOX2 genes within ∼600 kb of each other on a chromosome of 3.5 Mb. We show here that this chromosome also contains at least one non-TOX2 gene, EXG2, which encodes an exo-β1,3-glucanase. EXG2 is still present in strains that have undergone spontaneous deletion of up to ∼1.4 Mb of the 3.5-Mb chromosome. The results contribute to our understanding of the complex organization of the genes involved in HC-toxin biosynthesis and are consistent with the hypothesis that a reciprocal chromosomal translocation accounts for the pattern of distribution of the TOX2 genes in different C. carbonum isolates. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Presents information on mixed-linked glucanases which are extracellular enzymes. What purpose they serve; Details on the role that they play in the body; Information on the chemical make up of the enzymes.

Background: The high cost of enzymes is one of the key technical barriers that must be overcome to realize the economical production of biofuels and biomaterials from biomass. Supplementation of enzyme cocktails with lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase (LPMO) can increase the efficiency of these cellulase mixtures for biomass conversion. The previous studies have revealed that LPMOs cleave polysaccharide chains by oxidization of the C1 and/or C4 carbons of the monomeric units. However, how LPMOs enhance enzymatic degradation of lignocellulose is still poorly understood. Results: In this study, we combined enzymatic assays and real-time imaging using atomic force microscopy (AFM) to study the molecular interactions of an LPMO [TrAA9A, formerly known as TrCel61A) from Trichoderma reesei] and a cel-lobiohydrolase I (77Cel7A from T. longibrachiatum) with bacterial microcrystalline cellulose (BMCC) as a substrate. Cellulose conversion by TlCel7A alone was enhanced from 46 to 54% by the addition of TrAA9A. Conversion by a mixture of TlCel7A, endoglucanase, and β-glucosidase was increased from 79 to 87% using pretreated BMCC with TrAA9A for 72 h. AFM imaging demonstrated that individual TrAA9A molecules exhibited intermittent random movement along, across, and penetrating into the ribbon-like microfibril structure of BMCC, which was concomitant with the release of a small amount of oxidized sugars and the splitting of large cellulose ribbons into fibrils with smaller diameters. The dividing effect of the cellulose microfibril occurred more rapidly when TrAA9A and TlCel7A were added together compared to TrAA9A alone; TlCel7A alone caused no separation. Conclusions: TrAA9A increases the accessible surface area of BMCC by separating large cellulose ribbons, and thereby enhances cellulose hydrolysis yield. By providing the first direct observation of LPMO action on a cellulosic substrate, this study sheds new light on the mechanisms by which LPMO enhances biomass conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses alternative dispute resolution decisions issued by U.S. federal and state courts between October 1, 2015, and September 30, 2016. Topics discussed include scope of judicial review for challenges to arbitration rulings, sports arbitration and standard of review is particularly deferential under the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) and the terms of the collective bargaining agreements and pre-hearing depositions under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA).

Background: The cyclic peptide toxins of Amanita mushrooms, such as α-amanitin and phalloidin, are encoded by the "MSDIN" gene family and ribosomally biosynthesized. Based on partial genome sequence and PCR analysis, some members of the MSDIN family were previously identified in Amanita bisporigera, and several other members are known from other species of Amanita. However, the complete complement in any one species, and hence the genetic capacity for these fungi to make cyclic peptides, remains unknown. Results: Draft genome sequences of two cyclic peptide-producing mushrooms, the "Death Cap" A. phalloides and the "Destroying Angel" A. bisporigera, were obtained. Each species has ~30 MSDIN genes, most of which are predicted to encode unknown cyclic peptides. Some MSDIN genes were duplicated in one or the other species, but only three were common to both species. A gene encoding cycloamanide B, a previously described nontoxic cyclic heptapeptide, was also present in A. phalloides, but genes for antamanide and cycloamanides A, C, and D were not. In A. bisporigera, RNA expression was observed for 20 of the MSDIN family members. Based on their predicted sequences, novel cyclic peptides were searched for by LC/MS/MS in extracts of A. phalloides. The presence of two cyclic peptides, named cycloamanides E and F with structures cyclo(SFFFPVP) and cyclo(IVGILGLP), was thereby demonstrated. Of the MSDIN genes reported earlier from another specimen of A. bisporigera, 9 of 14 were not found in the current genome assembly. Differences between previous and current results for the complement of MSDIN genes and cyclic peptides in the two fungi probably represents natural variation among geographically dispersed isolates of A. phalloides and among the members of the poorly defined A. bisporigera species complex. Both A. phalloides and A. bisporigera contain two prolyl oligopeptidase genes, one of which (POPB) is probably dedicated to cyclic peptide biosynthesis as it is in Galerina marginata. Conclusion: The MSDIN gene family has expanded and diverged rapidly in Amanita section Phalloideae. Together, A. bisporigera and A. phalloides are predicted to have the capacity to make more than 50 cyclic hexa-, hepta-, octa-, nona- and decapeptides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many host genes induced during compatible plant-pathogen interactions constitute targets of pathogen virulence factors that act to suppress host defenses. In order to identify Nicotiana tabacum L. genes for pathogen-induced proteins involved in susceptibility to the oomycete Phytophthora parasitica var. nicotianae, we used SuperSAGE technology combined with next-generation sequencing to identify transcripts that were differentially upregulated during a compatible interaction. We identified a pathogen-induced gene (NtPIP) that was rapidly induced only during the compatible interaction. Virus-induced gene silencing of NtPIP reduced the susceptibility of N. tabacum to P. parasitica var. nicotianae. Additionally, transient expression of NtPIP in the resistant species Nicotiana megalosiphon Van Heurck & Mull. Arg. compromised the resistance to P. parasitica var. nicotianae. This pathogen-induced protein is therefore a positive regulator of the susceptibility response against an oomycete pathogen in tobacco. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant parasitic nematodes represent a critical threat to global agriculture and ecosystems, and biocontrol methods are becoming increasingly attractive as a means to combat nematode infestation. Nematode-trapping fungi are a potentially useful biocontrol option, but further research to enhance fungal pathogenicity will be needed before deployments are feasible. It is known that nematode-trapping fungi can secrete cuticle-degrading serine proteases, which act as key mediators of virulence against nematodes. Here, we describe the cloning and characterization of the cuticle-degrading serine protease gene, AmSP1 , from the nematode-trapping fungus Arthrobotrys musiformis . Phylogenetic and selection force analysis revealed a high degree of conservation of the AmSP1 catalytic and binding sites with previously described serine proteases from other nematode-trapping fungi. The dN/dS ratio of all six aligned-nematode-trapping fungi cuticle-degrading serine proteases was less than 1, as was the case of 386 individual codons, suggesting that the cuticle-degrading serine protease gene has undergone purifying selection and is evolutionarily important for this group of fungi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]