Evidence that the mechanisms of fungitoxicity of 8-quinolinol and its bischelate with copper(II) are different.

The copper(II) contents of the growth media, Sabouraud dextrose and Czapek-Dox broths, and of the spore inocula of Aspergillus niger (ATCC 1004), Aspergillus oryzae (ATCC 1011), Trichoderma viride (ATCC 8678), and Myrothecium verrucaria (ATCC 9095) were determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry in a graphite furnace. The test systems composed of Sabouraud dextrose broth and spore inocula of the four fungi contained only a little over 3% of the copper(II) required to form a minimal inhibitory concentration of bis(8-quinolinolato)copper(II). The test system of Czapek-Dox broth and A. oryzae contained slightly less than 65% of the copper(II) required to form a minimal inhibitory concentration of the bischelate of 8-quinolinol with copper(II). When the minimal inhibitory concentrations of 8-quinolinol and bis(8-quinolinolato)copper(II) were added simultaneously to the test system of Czapek-Dox broth and A. oryzae, 10% of the combined mixture of toxicants caused complete inhibition of growth indicating synergism between the toxicants. These results together with the observation that alpha-lipoic acid as well as small aliphatic thiol-containing compounds (cysteine, glutathione, dithioerythritol, and dithiothreitol) reversed the toxicity of 8-quinolinol but not the toxicity of bis(8-quinolinolato)copper(II) led to the conclusion that the mechanisms of fungitoxicity of both toxicants are different.

[Fatty acid composition of the lipids in fungi of the genus Aspergillus developing on mineral media with different carbon sources]. / Zhirnokislotnyi sostav lipidov gribov roda Aspergillus pri razvitii ikh na mineral'nykh sredakh s razlichnymi istochnikami ugleroda.

This work was aimed at studying the effect of different carbon sources in the composition of mineral media on the growth of fungi belonging to the Aspergillus genus and on the fatty acid composition of their lipids. A chemically-defined medium with glucose was shown to be optimal for the growth of 18 Aspergillus strains and for the synthesis of lipids by them. The fatty acid composition of lipids was studied when the fungi grew in media with different carbon sources. The lipids were shown to contain saturated and unsaturated fatty acids with the prevalence of oleic, linoleic and linolenic acids.

On a rabbit hyperlipemia induced by a fungic galactomannane peptide.

I.v. injection into rabbits of a fungic galactomannane peptide isolated from the culture medium of Aspergillus oryzae induced the apparition, 20 h later, of an hypertriglyceridemia, with a concomittant decrease of about 70% of the post-heparin lipoprotein lipase activity. The same effect had been obtained earlier with a carbohydrate-rich fraction purified from a crude papain preparation. The 2 fractions are compared.

Structure of cerebroside in Aspergillus oryzae.

Structural studies on cerebroside isolated from Aspergillus oryzae were carried out using mainly gas-liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The major component fatty acids were 2-hydroxystearic and 2-hydroxy-trans-octadecenoic acid; branched 17?-methyl nonadecasphingadienine isomers were the predominant long-chain bases. The component sugar was only glucose. The structure of the major cerebrosides was assumed to be N-2'-hydroxystearoyl-1-O-glucosyl-17?-methyl sphingadienine and N-2'-hydroxyoctadecenoyl-1-O-glucosyl-17?-methyl sphingadienine.