Molecular Identification of Fungi

Fungi enjoy great popularity in pharmaceutical, agricultural, and biotechnological applications. Recent advances in the decipherment of whole fungal genomes promise an acceleration of these trends.

This timely book links scientists from different parts of the world who are interested in the molecular identification of fungi combined with the exploration of the fungal biodiversity in different ecosystems. It provides a compendium for scientists who rely on a rapid and reliable detection of fungal specimens in environmental as well as clinical resources in order to ensure the benefit of industrial and clinical applications.

Chapters focus on the opportunities and limits of the molecular marker-mediated identification of fungi. Various methods, procedures and strategies are outlined. Furthermore, the book offers an update of the current progress in the development of fungal molecular techniques, and draws attention to potential and associated problems, as well as integrating theory and practice.

Part I. Plant pathological and environmental biological aspects

1- Fungal pathogens of plants in the Homogocene
George Newcombe & Frank M. Dugan

2- Molecular techniques for classification and diagnostics of plant pathogenic Oomycota
Otmar Spring & Marco Thines

3- Plasmodiophorids: The challenge to understand soil-borne, obligate biotrophs with a multiphasic life cycle
Sigrid Neuhauser, Simon Bulman & Martin Kirchmair

4- Applications of molecular markers and DNA sequences in identifying fungal pathogens of cool season grain legumes
Evans N. Njambere, Renuka N. Attanayake and Weidong Chen

5- Quantitative detection of fungi by molecular methods: A case study on
Fusarium
Kurt Brunner & Robert L. Mach

6- DNA-based tools for the detection of Fusarium spp. pathogenic on maize
Ivan Visentin, Danila Valentino, Francesca Cardinale, Giacomo Tamietti

7- Recent Advances in Molecular Detection and Diversity of Fusarium oxysporum
Ratul Saikia and Narendra Kadoo

8- Molecular chemotyping of Fusarium graminearum, F. culmorum and F. cerealis isolates from Finland and Russia.
Tapani Yli-Mattila & T. Gagkaeva

9- Molecular characterization and diagnosis of Macrophomina phaseolina - a charcoal rot fungus
Bandamaravuri Kishore Babu, Ratul Saikia & Dilip K. Arora

10- Molecular diagnosis of ochratoxigenic fungi
Daniele Sartori, Marta Hiromi Taniwaki, Beatriz Iamanaka, Maria Helena Pelegrinelli Fungaro

11- Molecular barcoding of microscopic fungi with emphasis on the mucoralean genera Mucor and Rhizopus
Youssuf Gherbawy, Claudia Kesselboth, Neamat Gouda & Kerstin Hoffmann

12- Advances in detection and identification of wood rotting fungi in timber and standing trees
Giovanni Nicolotti, Paolo Gonthier & Fabio Guglielmo

13- Molecular diversity and identification of endophytic fungi
Liang-Dong Guo

14- Molecular identification of anaerobic rumen fungi
Martin Eckart, Katerina Fliegerova, Kerstin Hoffmann, Kerstin Voigt

Part II. Human pathological and clinical aspects

15- New approaches in fungal DNA preparation from whole blood and subsequent pathogen detection via multiplex PCR
Roland P.H. Schmitz, Raimund Eck & Marc Lehmann

16- Classification of yeasts of the genus Malassezia by sequencing of the ITS and D1/D2 regions of DNA.
Lidia Pérez-Pérez, Manuel Pereiro Jr & Jaime Toribio

17- DNA-based detection of human pathogenic fungi: dermatophytes, opportunists and causative agents of deep mycoses
Lorenza Putignani, Silvia D'Arezzo, Maria Grazia Paglia and Paolo Visca

18- Applications of loop-mediated isothermal amplificaton methods (LAMP) for identification and diagnosis of mycotic diseases: Paracoccidioidomycosis and Ochroconis gallopava infection.
Ayako Sano & Eiko Nakagawa Itano

19- Identification of the genus Absidia (Mucorales, Zygomycetes), a comprehensive taxonomic revision
Kerstin Hoffmann

20- Molecular characters of zygomycetous Fungi
Xiao-yong Liu & Kerstin Voigt.