“
“Transplantation of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) is a potential therapy for cerebral ischemia. Although

BMSCs-induced angiogenesis is considered important for neurological functional recovery, the neurorestorative mechanisms are not fully understood. We examined whether BMSCs-induced angiogenesis enhances cerebral tissue perfusion and creates a suitable microenvironment Selleckchem NVP-LDE225 within the ischemic brain, which in turn accelerates endogenous neurogenesis and leads to improved functional recovery. Adult female rats subjected to 2 h middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) were transplanted with a subpopulation of human BMSCs from male donors (Flk-1+ hBMSCs) or saline into the ipsilateral brain parenchymal at 3 days after MCAO. Flk-1+ hBMSCs-treated rats exhibited significant behavioral recovery, beginning at 2 weeks after cerebral ischemia compared with controls. Moreover, rats treated with Flk-1+ hBMSCs showed increased glucose Cyclopamine mouse metabolic activity and reduced

infarct volume. Flk-1+ hBMSCs treatment significantly increased the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor and brain-derived neurotrophic factor, promoted angiogenesis, and facilitated cerebral blood flow in the ischemic boundary zone. Further, Flk-1+ hBMSCs treatment enhanced proliferation of neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPCs) in the subventricular zone and subgranular zone of the hippocampus. Finally, more NSPCs migrated toward the ischemic lesion and differentiated to mature neurons or glial cells with less apoptosis in Flk-1+ hBMSCs-treated rats. These data indicate that angiogenesis induced by Flk-1+ hBMSCs promotes endogenous neurogenesis, CHIR-99021 concentration which may cause functional recovery after cerebral

ischemia. “
“16S rRNA gene-based analysis of rumen Prevotella was carried out to estimate the diversity and diet specificity of bacteria belonging to this genus. Total DNA was extracted from the rumen digesta of three sheep fed two diets with different hay-to-concentrate ratios (10 : 1 and 1 : 2). Real-time PCR quantification of Prevotella revealed that the relative abundance of this genus in the total rumen bacteria was up to 19.7%, while the representative species Prevotella bryantii and Prevotella ruminicola accounted for only 0.6% and 3.8%, respectively. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis for Prevotella revealed shifts in the community composition with the diet. Analysis of 16S rRNA gene clone libraries showed significant differences (P=0.001) between clones detected from the sheep on the diets with different hay-to-concentrate ratios. The majority (87.8%) of Prevotella clones had <97% sequence similarity with known rumen Prevotella. These data suggest that uncultured Prevotella is more abundant than known Prevotella and that members of this genus appear to have specific metabolic niches.

All travelers are advised of any follow-up immunizations that need to be scheduled and are reminded if they should have any questions regarding any of the topics reviewed, they may call the clinic any time before or after their travel. There are limitations of this travel health EPZ-6438 purchase clinic. Currently the travel health clinic is only open once a week despite the ambulatory clinic being open every day. The number of visits to the clinic was initially low, but

proper advertising has increased the number of patient appointments, as of October 2010 over 100 patients have been seen at the clinic. Current local regulations prevent the pharmacist from administering any immunizations other than the influenza vaccine. The benefits of having a multidisciplinary approach are many. The pharmacy students and patients may benefit the most with this unique team approach at the travel clinic. The students Ponatinib have the opportunity to

apply what they have learned in a didactic class to a very specialized field of medicine that focuses on disease prevention and health promotion. They learn about emerging infectious diseases, their risks, and patterns of resistance. They learn how to access the most current travel-related information and work with a team to benefit the patient based solely on their individual needs. They truly learn the core values of any travel health specialist: individual risk assessment, educating

and communicating with the patient on disease prevention, and how to be safe during travel. At a time of globalization, this training may be invaluable to the patients they may serve in the future. The patients benefit by having an in-depth Bacterial neuraminidase pretravel consultation by multiple healthcare providers each with their own area of expertise. It is our hope that the patients come away from their pretravel consultation with a better understanding of how to remain healthy during their trip and what to expect from the medications and immunizations they received. The authors state they have no conflicts of interest to declare. “
“2010 Ed , (ii) +398 pp , softcover, GBP 45.00 , ISBN 978-095657920-1 , London , National Travel Health Network and Center , 2010 . Following in the tradition of International Travel and Health1 and Health Information for International Travel,2Health Information for Overseas Travel is the latest addition to the exclusive portfolio of major guidelines in travel health. The completely revised 2010 edition of Health Information for Overseas Travel is a major update of what is known in the UK as the “Yellow Book.” It has a table of Contents, a Preface, six main sections, a comprehensive index, and an Acknowledgements and a Disclaimer on the inside back cover.

This study adds evidence to the notion that novel PVL phages would be generated through illegitimate recombination events by acquiring the region at which hol, ami, see more luk, and int genes would line up upon lytic growth, and suggests that the PVL-positive MRSA clones that have emerged worldwide may carry distinct phages. Panton–Valentine leukocidin (PVL) is a two-component and hetero-oligomeric pore-forming cytolytic toxin identified in 1932 by Panton and Valentine (Panton & Valentine, 1932). Most of the community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus

aureus (CA-MRSA) strains that have emerged in recent years carry the genes encoding PVL, lukS-PV and lukF-PV, and cause a spectrum of infections (CDC, 1999; Baba et al., 2002; Diep et al., 2006). The role of PVL in the pathogenicity was re-evaluated, and PVL has been shown to play a key role in the pathogenesis of necrotizing pneumonia (Labandeira-Rey et al., 2007; Cremieux et al., 2009). PVL-positive S. aureus strains are lysogens of PVL phages, which belonged to Siphoviridae, a family of double-stranded DNA AZD9291 solubility dmso viruses that share a long noncontractile tail and capsid with an isometric or an elongated

shape (Kaneko et al., 1998; Narita et al., 2001; Baba et al., 2002; Kaneko & Kamio, 2004; Diep et al., 2006; Ma et al., 2008). Canchaya et al. (2003) classified S. aureus prophages into five groups based on differences in structural module, for example tail and capsid: groups 1–3 Sfi21-like cos-site Siphoviridae, and groups 1 and 2 sfi11-like pac-site Siphoviridae. PVL phages reported to date belong to either group 1 (isometric head type) or group 2 (elongated head type) of Sfi21-like cos-site Siphoviridae (Canchaya et al., 2003; Kaneko & Kamio, 2004). However, considerable differences exist

in the DNA replication/transcriptional regulation region of PVL phages. We developed a PCR system to classify PVL phages based on differences in this region (Ma et al., selleck kinase inhibitor 2008). To date, many PVL-positive MRSA and methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) clones have been reported (Vandenesch et al., 2003; Rasigade et al., 2010) but there are few reports describing the correlations between the structure of prophage and genetic background of host cells. The representative CA-MRSA strains in the United States belong to CC1 [USA400 in pulsed-field type (PFT)] and CC8 (USA300 in PFT) (McDougal et al., 2003). These strains are presumed to carry prophages similar to φSa2mw carried by MW2 (a CC1 clone) or φSa2USA carried by FPR3757 (a CC8 clone) (Baba et al., 2002; Diep et al., 2006). Boakes et al. (2011) reported that the majority of CC22 strains disseminated in England carry PVL phages belonging to group 1 Siphoviridae (Boakes et al., 2011). However, the structure of PVL phages carried by other CA-MRSA clones, for example CC80 MRSA strains, the major CA-MRSA clone in Europe (Faria et al., 2005; Holmes et al.

22 μm) before use. Each well of a 96-well microplate was filled with 100 μL of the amoebic trophozoites suspension (containing Epigenetic Reader Domain inhibitor 5 × 104 cells). The amoebae (A. castellanii or A. culbertsoni) were allowed to adhere to the wells for 2 h at 27 °C. PAS (100 μL) containing 5 × 102 bacteria (multiplicity of infection of 0.01) were added in the wells and incubation was carried out during 24, 48 and 72 h at 27 °C. Controls were performed by incubating bacteria in PAS without amoebae. The same experiments were carried out in filtered tap water. After incubation (24, 48 or 72 h), the co-cultures were passed five times through a 27-gauge needle

to lyse the amoebae. Experiments had previously been performed with A. baumanii alone to ensure that this passage did not affect the viability of the RO4929097 mouse bacteria. Serial dilutions

of the lysates were plated on Mueller–Hinton medium and incubated at 37 °C for 48 h to evaluate CFU. After 24, 48 and 72 h of incubation, a microscopical examination of the culture using trypan blue staining was also carried out in order to determine the viability of amoebae. All the experiments were reproduced three times, each time in duplicate. Amoebae were infected with A. baumanii Ab1 strain as described above, but the experimentations were performed in flasks, and after 24 h of incubation, the co-cultures were transferred into encystment medium as described previously (Bouyer et al., 2007). This medium was chosen Bay 11-7085 so as to allow cyst formation and to mimic conditions of poor nutrient availability. The CFU of A. baumanii were then numbered after 3, 5, 7, 11, 30 and 60 days of incubation at 27 °C. In addition, samples of suspensions (with Ab1 only) were examined after 2 h, 1, 3, 11 and 60 days by electron microscopy. Trophozoites (5 × 105 mL−1) of each strain were incubated at 27 °C for 72 h in PAS or filtered water. The amoebae were then pelleted by gentle centrifugation

(1000 g–10 min) in order to prevent lysis, and each strain of A. baumanii (5 × 103 mL−1) was incubated at 27 °C for 48 h in the resultant filtered (0.45 μm) supernatant. After incubation, the growth potential of the bacteria was determined by plating serial dilutions of the suspension on Mueller–Hinton medium to determine CFU counts. Controls were performed with A. baumanii incubated in PAS or in filtered water without supernatant. The potential internalization of bacteria was investigated by electron microscopy of infected amoebae. After 2 h, 1, 3, 11 and 60 days, a sample of the co-cultivation in PAS or in encystment medium (A. castellanii or A. culbertsoni with the strain A. baumanii Ab1) was incubated for 1 h in phosphate buffer 0.1 M, containing 4% glutaraldehyde at 4 °C. Cells were washed four times in phosphate-buffered saline and post-fixed with 1% OsO4 in phosphate buffer 0.1 M for 1 h at 4 °C. The sample was dehydrated in an acetone series and embedded in araldite resin.

In a different paradigm, Cools et al. (2010) also revealed that dopaminergic medications decreased ‘distractor resistance’ in find more PD (see also Moustafa et al.,

2008). The results of the present study are consistent with the findings of previous reports that found no severe attentional dysfunction in early-stage PD (e.g. Rafal et al., 1984; Della Sala et al., 1986; Cossa et al., 1989; Lee et al., 1999; Kingstone et al., 2002; Koerts et al., 2009; Cristinzio et al., 2012), and indicate that dopamine agonists do not affect alerting, orienting and executive attention. Other researchers suggested that attentional dysfunction in PD is confined to internal cognitive control mechanisms (Brown & Marsden, 1988; Bennett et al., 1995). However, using the ANT, Zhou et al. (2012) demonstrated a selective deficit of the orienting network, although results also revealed that alerting and executive components might be compromised in a more advanced stage of the disease (see also Allcock et al., 2009; Vandenbossche et al., 2012). Results from animal models and human pharmacological studies suggest that dopamine is specifically related to the executive attentional network (Marrocco & Davidson, 1998). However, Robbins (2002) argued that in animals the systematic administration of dopaminergic agents predominantly affects response latency,

premature responses and omissions via the dorsal and ventral striatal systems. The administration of dopamine agonists in humans also modulates striatal and midbrain responses to reward (Riba et al., 2008; Abler et al., 2009). CYC202 order Our findings are consistent with the response speed hypothesis of systematic dopaminergic effects (Robbins, 2002) because the sole change after the administration of dopamine agonists was shorter mean reaction times. Dopamine agonists had no noticeable effects on the altering, orienting

and executive measures in contrast to attentional boost, which was significantly enhanced. This suggests that the attention indexes, as measured by the ANT, are dissociable from attentional boost. What is (-)-p-Bromotetramisole Oxalate the practical relevance of enhanced attentional boost? We found that changes in BIS-11 attentional impulsivity correlated with atypical attentional boost (enhanced memory for distractor-associated scenes). Housden et al. (2010) also reported impulsivity in medicated patients with PD. In the ABT, target stimuli are salient and rewarded, leading to the enhanced encoding of the background scene. Distractors are not rewarded, and therefore there is no enhanced encoding of the background scene. This latter omission of distractor-associated scenes is disinhibited in patients with PD receiving dopaminergic medications, which is in accordance with our previous results from a simple associative learning task (Nagy et al., 2012).

The bacterium uses the pLcr plasmid-encoded type III secretion system to deliver virulence factors into host cells. Delivery requires ATP hydrolysis by the YscN ATPase

encoded by the yscN gene also on pLcr. A yscN mutant was constructed in the fully virulent CO92 strain containing a nonpolar, in-frame internal deletion within the gene. We demonstrate that CO92 with a yscN mutation was not able to secrete the LcrV protein (V-Antigen) and attenuated in a subcutaneous model of plague demonstrating that the YscN ATPase was essential for virulence. However, if the yscN mutant was complemented with a functional yscN gene in trans, virulence was restored. To evaluate the mutant as a live vaccine, Swiss–Webster mice were vaccinated twice with the ΔyscN mutant at varying doses and were protected against Tanespimycin bubonic plague in a dose-dependent manner. Antibodies to F1 capsule but not to LcrV were detected in sera from the vaccinated mice. These preliminary results suggest a proof-of-concept for an attenuated, genetically engineered, live vaccine effective against bubonic plague. Yersinia pestis is a zoonotic bacterial agent responsible for bubonic and www.selleckchem.com/products/H-89-dihydrochloride.html pneumonic plague, diseases which are transmitted through fleabites and aerosols, respectively (Perry & Fetherston,

1997). The bacterium uses a sophisticated virulence factor delivery system, the type III secretion system (T3SS), that is composed of the Ysc injectisome which secretes proteins referred to as Yops (Yersinia outer proteins) into host cells. The proteins for the T3SS are encoded by genes on the pCD1/pLcr plasmid (Cornelis et al., 1989; Straley, 1991). One of the Yops, LcrV, has various roles. It is surface-exposed prior to interacting with host cells, required for translocation of the effector Yops, and has some role

in Yop regulation (Nilles et al., 1998; Sarker et al., 1998a, b; Pettersson et al., 1999). Also, LcrV is highly antigenic and able to provide protection against plague challenges in animal models of disease (Une & Brubaker, 1984; Motin et al., 1994; Roggenkamp et al., 1997). While the delivery of some Protein kinase N1 Yops may require chaperones for secretion, other Yops do not. Yop delivery also requires cell-to-cell contact (Rosqvist et al., 1994), but the identity of the human receptor for Y. pestis is not known. A Y. pestis T3SS-specific ATPase, designated YscN and also encoded on pCD1/pLcr, removes chaperones from the Yops before translocation into mammalian hosts (Payne & Straley, 1998, 1999). The process requires ATP hydrolysis, but the details of transport are unknown (Akeda & Galan, 2005). It has been hypothesized that the energy for the translocation may be generated by a proton gradient (Paul et al., 2008); however, this hypothesis remains controversial (Galan, 2008). The YscN protein is the only ATPase required for chaperone removal and possibly for the translocation through the pore.

Alternative approaches proposed the utilization of MALDI-TOF for species identification based on the sodA gene (Hinse et al., 2011). Most of these assays were developed using blood-derived clinical cultures of the SBSEC or restricted to a single species. In contrast to blood samples, raw dairy products were shown to contain a large diversity of different lactococci, enterococci, Streptococcus thermophilus, or Streptococcus

agalactiae (Delbès et al., 2007; Younan & Bornstein, 2007; Franciosi et al., 2009; Giannino et al., 2009; Jans, 2011), which increases the requirements regarding specificity of the primers. Even though the genes groESL or sodA provide improved capability to differentiate check details between species and subspecies, the 16S rRNA gene is still regarded as the recommended target for the initial identification of novel bacteria for which the higher degree of conservation of the 16S rRNA gene can be of advantage (Glazunova et al., 2009). This gene is one of the most important genotypic markers for bacterial taxonomy (Yarza

et al., 2008), and a large number of 16S rRNA gene sequences are available for downstream comparison and further analysis (Benson et al., 2009). It therefore represents an ideal target for the analysis of complex and Cobimetinib less-studied ecological niches such as the human microbiota (Grice et al., 2008; Liu et al., 2008) or spontaneous food fermentations, e.g., the African dairy environment. The high-density and complex microbial communities in these niches could result in unexpected genetic modifications through horizontal gene transfer (HGT), which was observed for African S. infantarius subsp. infantarius as well as for S. thermophilus and other LAB (Hols et al., 2005; PTK6 Makarova et al., 2006; Jans, 2011).

HGT is affecting nearly all genes within prokaryotic genomes; some genes including the 16S rRNA gene are, however, hypothesized to be less affected by HGT (Jain et al., 1999). Therefore, the objective was to utilize the high conservation of the 16S rRNA gene to develop an identification assay applicable to all species within the SBSEC allowing clear differentiation from other streptococci, enterococci, and lactococci regularly found in the dairy environment. The availability of large sets of nucleotide sequences from all members of the SBSEC including dairy isolates (Jans, 2011) enabled the design of a subsequent RFLP for the discrimination of SBSEC species groups. Furthermore, the primers were designed to work with Sanger sequencing for downstream sequence analysis. The assay was then evaluated against reference strains and isolated species of dairy microbial communities. Bacterial reference strains listed in Table 1 were obtained from the Culture Collection University of Gothenburg (CCUG, Gothenburg, Sweden), the German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures (DSMZ, Braunschweig, Germany), and the National Collection of Type Cultures (NCTC, Porton Down, UK).

Such recombination processes may significantly influence bacterial diversity (Kobayashi, 2001). R-M systems can also be considered as mobile elements, as suggested by their amplification, mobility, and involvement in genome rearrangements, as well as their mutual competition and regulation of gene expression (Ishikawa et al., 2010). Type II R-M systems are usually located in bacterial

and archaeal chromosomes, although they are sometimes found in plasmids, which may disseminate see more these systems among diverse bacterial populations. In a few cases, R-M modules may play an important role in the biology of bacterial plasmids, since they are able to stabilize these replicons in a bacterial population by eliminating plasmid-less cells at the postsegregational level (e.g. Kulakauskas et al., 1995). The vast majority of plasmid-encoded type II R-M systems have been identified NVP-LDE225 nmr in (1) Enterobacteriaceae (e.g. Klebsiella pneumonia RFL2; Lubys et al., 1999) and (2) lactic acid bacteria (e.g. Lactococcus lactis W56; Kong & Josephson, 2002). Much less is known about the R-M systems of other groups of bacteria. For example,

to our knowledge, only one plasmid-encoded R-M module has been described in the Alphaproteobacteria, whose genomes are known for their multi-replicon structures (Rochepeau et al., 1997). Recently we have performed complex genomic studies of a pool of 17 plasmids residing in bacteria of the genus Paracoccus (Alphaproteobacteria). Detailed analysis of the obtained nucleotide sequences revealed that one of the plasmids (pAMI7 of Paracoccus aminophilus JCM 7686) contains a type II R-M system (Dziewit et al., 2011). In this study we present a molecular and functional characterization of the components of this system. The following bacterial strains were used in this study:

(1) P. aminophilus JCM 7686 (Urakami et al., 1990), (2) Paracoccus pantotrophus KL100 (Bartosik et al., 2002), and (3) Escherichia coli TG1, TOP10 and MC1000 (Casadaban & Cohen, 1980). All strains were grown in lysogeny broth medium (Sambrook & Russell, 2001) at 37 °C (E. coli) or 30 °C (Paracoccus spp.). Where necessary, Sinomenine the medium was supplemented with antibiotics at the following concentrations: ampicillin – 100 μg mL−1, kanamycin – 50 μg mL−1, rifampicin – 50 μg mL−1, and tetracycline – 20 μg mL−1. The plasmids used in this study are listed in Table 1. The nucleotide sequence of pAMI7 was analyzed using Clone Manager (Sci-Ed8) and artemis software (Carver et al., 2008). Similarity searches were performed using the blast programs (Altschul et al., 1997) provided by the NCBI (http://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi) and REBASE (http://rebase.neb.com/rebase/rebase.html). The restriction and modification activity of E.

They have a very well-conserved active site (LDGLDLDVE) in common with Endo T and could also represent enzymes with ENGase activity. From the phylogenetic analysis, the presence of multiple copies of the gene during evolution can be assumed, with H. jecorina having retained only a single copy. The theoretical values of the Endo T molecular learn more mass (AEP-VNA: 36 349 Da) differ from those observed by SDS-PAGE (33 kDa) and ESI-MS (32 102 Da). This suggests that the protein is further processed. Several facts indicate trimming at the C-terminus. Firstly, with C-terminal sequencing, only a Glu residue could be determined, probably

due to the presence of a Pro residue as the penultimate amino acid residue (e.g. P289–E290). Secondly, by fingerprint analysis, peptide fragments carrying E290 at their C-terminus were observed. Finally, the mass of the protein sequence A1-E290 (and two GlcNAc residues at two sequons)

approximates the value determined by MS. One of the four potential N-glycosylation sites (Asn316) is then located in the C-terminal processed peptide. C-terminal processing has been reported previously with T. reesei proteins [e.g. cellulases in Messner et al. (1988); Hagspiel et al. (1989); Mischak et al. (1989); Chen et al. (1993) and a tyrosinase in Selinheimo Enzalutamide cost et al. (2006)]. Further research is needed to elucidate the role of this C-terminal processing. The substrate specificity of Endo T resembles that of Streptomyces Endo H and F. meningosepticum Endo F1 (Trimble et al., 1987; Tarentino et al., 1992): oligomannosidic, phosphorylated and hypermannosylated-type glycoproteins are good substrates, whereas complex-type glycans are not hydrolysed. Although the enzyme shows isology with fungal chitinases, this activity could not be detected.

When different filamentous fungi were cultivated in Sabouraud liquid medium, all examined Carnitine palmitoyltransferase II Trichoderma species (T. pseudokoningii, T. longibrachiatum, T. reesei, T. atroviride, T. koningii, T. hamatum, T. harzianum and T. crassum) secreted ENGase activity. Although A. oryzae carries two highly similar genes (Machida et al., 2005) and activity was observed before (Hitomi et al., 1985), no ENGase activity could be detected in our study. The absence of ENGase activity in this strain could be due to suboptimal growth conditions unfavourable for enzyme secretion. Among the fungi that carry a similar gene, only M. grisea strain GUY II was found to be positive. ENGase activity was detected in the cultivation medium of T. reesei with a high glucose content (e.g. Sabouraud liquid medium). Under these conditions, cellobiohydrolase/endoglucanase activity was absent due to induction and glucose repression mechanisms regulating cellulase activity (Ilmen et al., 1996). Thus, in agreement with the study of Foreman et al. (2003), secretion of Endo T seems not to be coregulated with cellulase expression.

15, and 0.2 μg mL−1.

ROS accumulation in fungal cells was examined using 2′,7′-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (H2DCFDA; GSI-IX nmr Molecular Probes) (Liu et al., 2010). Conidia of A. niger were cultured in Sabouraud medium 16 h and treated with CTBT (10 μg mL−1) for 3 h at 28 °C. The hyphae were washed and resuspended in 10 mM (PBS) and incubated in 40 mM H2DCFDA for 30 min at 28 °C. Then, the hyphae were washed, resuspended in 10 mM PBS, and visualized by fluorescence microscopy using excitation and emission wavelengths of 480 and 530 nm, respectively. The antifungal activity of CTBT was assessed using the agar diffusion method on Mueller–Hinton medium, as recommended by Espinel-Ingroff et al. (2007). CTBT (10 μg per disk) was found to inhibit the growth of different molds involving both saprophytic and pathogenic fungal species. It induced inhibition zones, varying in diameter from 19 mm for M. gypseum to 50 mm for P. purpurogenum, that were apparently larger than those caused by itraconazole (30 μg per disk) (Table 1). This was probably due to Z VAD FMK CTBT’s different rate of diffusion into the agar medium. Under the same experimental conditions, fluconazole (25 μg per disk), having only limited activity against filamentous fungi (Loeffler & Stevens, 2003),

did not produce zones of growth inhibition. In further experiments, we used two fungal species, A. niger and A. fumigatus. They represent industrially and medically important molds. Aspergillus niger is used for the production of organic acids and enzymes. Aspergillus fumigatus is a human pathogen that causes invasive, often fatal, pulmonary disease in immunocompromised oxyclozanide individuals

(Maschmeyer et al., 2007). As shown in Fig. 1, CTBT added at a concentration of 80 μg mL−1 to Sabouraud broth containing conidia (106 per mL) of A. niger or A. fumigatus, inhibited the swelling of conidia, and prevented germ tube development. After 24 h of interaction of A. niger or A. fumigatus conidia with CTBT (80 μg mL−1), no fungal growth was detected on Sabouraud agar in spots (1.5 × 104 conidia) of treated conidia (Fig. 2), indicating that the effect of CTBT was fungicidal. CTBT has been found to induce superoxide formation and oxidative stress in yeast cells (Batova et al., 2010). Apparently, the same occurs in filamentous fungi. CTBT added to A. niger mycelium induced the ROS formation as detected by H2DCFDA, which is a cell-permeable indicator for ROS. Intense green fluorescence was distributed along the plasma membrane and within the cytoplasm (Fig. 3). However, no ROS-specific signals were observed in control hyphae (Fig. 3). When A. niger or A. fumigatus conidia were applied (in 5 μL) to solid growth media, radial growth of colonies was observed. When using initial spore amounts 2 × 102–2 × 104 conidia, colonies appeared with a diameter of 50 mm after 3–7 days, depending on fungal species and culture media used.