Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is the number one cereal crop and the main staple diet of the people of Kazakhstan. In 2014, five samples of 500 wheat seeds from various localities of Astana province were analyzed for their mycoflora by using agar plate method. Seeds treated with 2% NaOCl were placed on potato dextrose agar (PDA) at the rate of 5 seeds per plate. The seeds were incubated for 7 days at 22 ± 2°C, under alternating cycles of 12 h light and 12 h darkness. A fungus was consistently recovered from approximately 25% of the seed samples on PDA. The fungal colonies were initially white, becoming grey to black, wool-like, and growing aerial mycelium covering the entire petri dish (9 cm in diameter) within 7 days at 25°C. Conidia were unicellular, black, elliptical, and 10.0 to 15.0 μm (average 12.6 μm) in diameter. Morphological characteristics of the isolates were similar to those of Nigrospora oryzae (Ellis 1971). Moreover, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the ribosomal RNA was amplif...

Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) was purified and characterized from a dried wild edible and medicinal mushroom (V. bombycina). Using Sepharose 4B-L-tyrosine-p-aminobenzoic acid affinity chromatography, PPO was purified from the dried V. bombycina. The purification was completed with a 33.85-fold purification. On sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), the purified enzyme migrated as a single band. The molecular weight of the purified enzyme was estimated by SDS-PAGE to be about 25 kDa. Catechol, 4-methyl catechol, and pyrogallol were used as substrates to determine the enzyme activity and its kinetic parameters (Km and Vmax). At the optimum pH and temperature, dried V. bombycina PPO’s Km and Vmax values for catechol, 4-methyl catechol, and pyrogallol were found to be 1.67 mM–833.33 U/mL, 3.17 mM–158.73 U/mL, and 2.67 mM–3333.33 U/mL, respectively. Also investigated were the effects of pH and temperature on the enzymatic properties of PPO in dried V. bombycina. The optimum pH and temperature values for dried V. bombycina PPO obtained by using catechol, 4-methyl catechol, and pyrogallol as substrates were 6.5, 15 °C; 9.0, 20 °C; and 8.0, 15°C, respectively. This is the first study on the purification and characterization of PPO from dried V. bombycina.

Truncatella angustata is recorded as the cause of leaf spots on Rosa canina, forthe first time from Kazakhstan.

Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) is an important soft fruit crop in Kazakhstan and is cultivated on more than 1.000 ha each year. Gray mold caused by the fungus Botrytis cinerea is one of the...