Molds Neurospora crassa

Prior to 1941, mj/o-inositol was often determined by isolation, as such or as the hexaacetate.87 The isolated inositol was weighed, or was oxidized to carbon dioxide (which was measured in a gas buret).92 In 1941, Woolley98 published his microbiological method, in which the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was used as a test organism. Soon afterward, there appeared an improved procedure, using Saccharomyces carlsbergensis,9i 96 and an additional method based on the discovery of an inositol-less mutant of the common bread-mold, Neurospora crassa.96-98 Plundreds of types of foods,... 

The assimilatory enzyme from the mold Neurospora crassa has been intensively studied for over two decades, particularly by Nason and his collaborators. Thus, Nason and Evans (39) identified FAD as a prosthetic group in the enzyme Nicholas, Nason, and McElroy (40) showed that molybdenum was required for the synthesis of nitrate reductase Nicholas and Nason (41) suggested its presence in the enzyme Garrett and Nason (42) showed that a b-type cytochrome (cytochrome 6557) co-purifies with this nitrate reductase and Nason et al. (11) suggested, from in vitro complementation experiments with nitrate reductaseless mutants, that the enzyme consists of at least two components required for activity. These workers have suggested that the electron transfer pathway is ... 

Chitin, a polymer of /3-D-(l- )-linked 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-glucose residues, is an important structural polysaccharide found predominantly in the exoskeletons of arthropods and in the cell walls of fungi. Its enzymic synthesis has been studied, by Glaser and Brown, in the mold Neurospora crassa. 

In contrast to the cross-tolerance studies described above employing arsenic, similar experiments reported that cadmium induces self-tolerance (Cervera 1985), but pretreatment with zinc or cadmium generally does not confer thermotolerance in cultured cells (Cervera 1985) and sea urchin embryos (Roccheri et al. 1988). Heat pretreatment does not confer crosstolerance to cadmium in cultured cells (Cervera 1985 Ciavarra and Simeone 1990a,b), although a few exceptions have been reported. Kapoor and SvEENiVASAN (1988) demonstrated that cadmium chloride treatment led to the induction of high levels of peroxidase activity and induced thermotolerance in the mold Neurospora crassa, although no correlation between levels of superoxide dismutase and the development of thermotolerance could be established. 

Cell-free extracts of the mold, Neurospora crassa, are reported to catalyze the... 

Biochemical Mutants. Mutants with such anomalies were first found and studied (A. Kiihn, A. Butenandt) among insects (e.g. the flour moth Ephestia and the fruit fly Drosophila). Later, biochemical mutants were generated (Beadle) from the easily grown bread mold Neurospora crassa. 

The red bread mold belongs to the Neurospora crassa complex. The pink mold seen in mushroom culture is most frequently Neurospora sitophila. a pernicious contaminant that is difficult to eliminate. 

Studies on the ergothioneine-synthesizing abilities of common molds have revealed that Neurospora crassa produces appreciable quantities of the compound (Table IV). This organism was therefore selected for studies in the author s laboratory of the pathway of ergothioneine biosynthesis. The results have permitted a complete accounting for the origin of the ergothioneine molecule and have provided evidence for the time sequence of the steps involved in the biosynthesis. 

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