Beauvericin is a cyclic hexadepsipeptide mycotoxin, which has insecticidal, antimicrobial, antiviral and cytotoxic activities. It is a potential agent for pesticides and medicines. This paper reviews the bioactivity, fermentation and biosynthesis of the fungal product beauvericin.

This paper reviews 116 new compounds with antifungal or antibacterial activities as well as 169 other known antimicrobial compounds, with a specific focus on January 2010 through March 2015. Furthermore, the phylogeny of the fungi producing these antibacterial or antifungal compounds was analyzed. The new methods used to isolate marine fungi that possess antibacterial or antifungal activities as well as the relationship between structure and activity are shown in this review.

This article is the 17th in the Fungal Diversity Notes series which allows the researchers to publish fungal collections with updated reports of fungus-host and fungus-geography. Herein we report 97 taxa with four new genera distributed in three phyla (Ascomycota, Glomeromycota and Mucoromycota), 11 classes, 38 orders and 62 families collected from various regions worldwide. This collection is further classified into taxa from 69 genera with four novel genera namely Jinshana, Lithophyllospora, Parapolyplosphaeria and Stegonsporiicola. Furthermore, 71 new species, 21 new records, one new combination and four novel phylogenetic placements are provided. The new species comprise Acrocalymma estuarinum, Aggregatorygma isidiatum, Alleppeysporonites elsikii, Amphibambusa aquatica, Apiospora hongheensis, Arthrobotrys tachengensis, Calonectria potisiana, Collariella hongheensis, Colletotrichum squamosae, Corynespora chengduensis, Diaporthe beijingensis, Dicellaesporites plicatus, Dicellaesporites verrucatus, Dictyoarthrinium endophyticum, Distoseptispora chiangraiensis, Dothiora eucalypti, Epicoccum indicum, Exesisporites chandrae, Fitzroyomyces pseudopandanicola, Fomitiporia exigua, Fomitiporia rondonii, Fulvifomes subthailandicus, Gigaspora siqueirae, Gymnopus ailaoensis, Hyalorbilia yunnanensis, Hygrocybe minimiholatra, H. mitsinjoensis, H. parviholatra, H. solis, H. vintsy, Helicogermslita kunmingensis, Jinshana tangtangiae, Kirschsteiniothelia dujuanhuensis, Lamproderma subcristatum, Leucoagaricus madagascarensis, Leucocoprinus mantadiaensis, Lithophyllospora australis, Marasmius qujingensis, Melomastia aquilariae, Monoporisporites jansoniusii, M. pattersonii, Monoporisporites valdiyae, Mucispora maesotensis, Mucor soli, Muyocopron yunnanensis, Nigrospora tomentosae, Ocellularia psorirregularis, Ophiocordyceps duyunensis, Oxneriaria nigrodisca, Oxydothis aquatica, O. filiforme, Phacidiella xishuangbannaensis, Phlebiopsis subgriseofuscescens, Pleurothecium takense, Pleurotus tuber-regium, Pseudochaetosphaeronema puerensis, Pseudodactylaria guttulate, Racheliella chinensis, Rhexoacrodictys fangensis, Roussoella neoaquatica, Rubroboletus pruinosus, Sanghuangporus subzonatus, Scytalidium assmuthi, Shrungabeeja kudremukhensis, Spirographa skorinae, Stanjehughesia bambusicola, Stegonsporiicola aurantiaca, Umbelopsis hingganensis, Vararia tenuata, Verruconis pakchongensis, Wongia bandungensis, and Zygosporium cymodoceae. The new combination is Parapolyplosphaeria thailandica (≡ Polyplosphaeria thailandica). The 21 new hosts, geographical and habitat records comprise Acrocalymma fici, Apiculospora spartii, Aspergillus subramanianii, Camposporium ramosum, Clonostachys rogersoniana, Colletotrichum brevisporum, C. plurivorum, Collybiopsis gibbosa, Dictyosporium tratense, Distoseptispora adscendens, Exosporium livistonae, Ganoderma gibbosum, Graphis mikuraensis, Gymnosporangium paraphysatum, Lasiodiplodia thailandica, Moesziomyces bullatus, Penicillium cremeogriseum, P. echinulonalgiovense, P. javanicum, P. lanosocoeruleum, P. polonicum, and Pleurotus tuber-regium. Graphis chlorotica, G. panhalensis and G. parilis are given as novel phylogenetic placements. In addition, we provide the morphology of Tarzetta tibetensis which was missing in the previous Fungal Diversity Notes 1611–1716. Identification of characterization of all these taxa are supported by morphological and multigene phylogenetic analyses.

Aims: The aim of the study was to isolate and characterize the endophytic fungi from the rhizomes of the Chinese traditional medicinal plant Dioscorea zingiberensis and to detect their antibacterial activities. Methods and Results: After strict sterile sample preparation, nine fungal endophytes were isolated from rhizomes of the Chinese traditional medicinal plant D. zingiberensis. The endophytes were classified by morphological traits and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rRNA gene sequence analysis. Their ITS rDNA sequences were 99–100% identical to Nectria, Fusarium, Rhizopycnis, Acremonium and Penicillium spp. respectively. Of these, the most frequent genera were Fusarium and Nectria. One isolate, Dzf7, was unclassified on the basis of its low sequence similarity. The next closest species was Alternaria longissima (c. 92·4% sequence similarity). Endophyte isolate Dzf5 showed the closest sequence similarity (c. 99·5%) to an uncultured soil fungus (DQ420800) obtained from Cedar Creek, USA. Bioassays using a modified broth dilution test were used to detect the antibacterial activity of n-butanol extracts of both mycelia and culture filtrates of D. zingiberensis showed biological activity against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus haemolyticus, Escherichia coli and Xanthomonas vesicatoria. Minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of the extracts were between 31·25 μg ml⁻¹ and 125 μg ml⁻¹. Conclusions: Endophytic fungus Dzf2 (c. 99·8% sequence similarity to Fusarium redolens) isolated from D. zingiberensis rhizome showed the most potent antibacterial activities. Significance and Impact of the Study: Endophytic fungi isolated from D. zingiberensis may be used as potential producers of antibacterial natural products.

In the global change scenario, nitrogen (N) deposition has the potential to affect the soil microbial communities that play critical roles in ecosystem functioning. Although the impacts of N deposition on soil microbial communities have been reasonably well studied, microorganism responses to the N addition combined with the seasonal change have rarely been reported. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of different levels of N addition (0, 2.5, 5.0, and 7.5 g N·m⁻²·yr⁻¹) on soil microbial communities in different seasons (spring, summer, and autumn) in a boreal forest. Our results showed that the soil physical–chemical properties were found to be changed by N addition and seasonal changes were correlated with microbial community structure. The N addition and seasonal changes significantly affect the diversity and abundance of the microbial community, while their interactions only affect the bacterial abundance and the fungal diversity. In addition, our results also provided clear evidence for specific responses of microorganisms to the different N additions and each season. Our findings suggest that the microbial community response to N deposition could be the seasonal change and will strongly correlate with environmental change.