The major environmental

effects are:
Temperature
Optimal pH
Oxygen requirement
Water availability
Light

Fungi can be divided into groups according

to temperature requirements for optimal
growth.
1. Psychrophile (cold-loving)
-optimum growth not more than 16C
and
maximum growth 20C
-environment : polar and alpine region
- Clasdosporium herbarum,
Thamnidium
elegans

2.

3.

Mesophiles
-most fungi is mesophilic
-optimum in the room temperature with range
(10-40C)
-Aspergillus flavus, Penicillium chrysogenum
Thermophiles (heat-loving)
-optimum- 40C-50C
-Can grow at temperatures that would
denature key proteins in most organisms
(typically 50C),up to and including the
temperature of water boiling at sea level.
-Thermomyces lanuginosus, Chaetomium
thermophile

There are a range of chemical factors

contribute to temperature tolerance in fungi

The ability to grow in the more extreme

environment involves adaptation of whole
microorganisms

The temperature limits set by the first

cellular component or process that
breakdown.

The lower temperature limits are set by the

following factors:
1. reduced rate of chemical reaction at low
temperature
2. The

increased of viscosity of cellular water

at subzero temperatures

3. Excessive

concentration of cellular ions

leading to protein inactivation

Robinson(2001) states that the lower

growth temperature of psycrophiles is
fixed,not by the cellular properties of
cellular macromolecules, but instead by the
physical properties of aqueous solvent
systems inside and outside of the cell .

From studies on bacteria, yeast and

filamentous fungi, changes in temperature
lead to changes in fatty acid composition of
the membrane lipids.
To ensure that membrane fluidity is optimal
for the functioning of membrane transporter
and enzymes -> term of homeoviscous
adaptation.

Examples of homeoviscous adaptation.

(i)The
fatty
acids
and
membrane
phospholipids of certain psychrophilic yeast
and filamentous fungi are more unsaturated
than in mesophiles and degree of
unsaturation
increased
at
lower
temperature.
(Saturated fatty acids are less fluid than
unsaturated fatty acid at any given
temperature)
Eg:
- Monographella nivalis (snow mold)

(ii)High
concentration
of
disaccharide
trehalose often occur in psychrophilic and
psychrotrophic fungi in response to low
temperatures
->Trehalose acts as general stress protectant
(in cytosol) whereby it stabilized membrane
during dehydration.
->Beside, polyols (eg:glycerol and mannitol)
also accumulated in response to stress
condition.

(iii) The enzymes and ribosomal components

of thermophilic yeast be more heat stable
than those of mesophiles.
-> the heat stability is conferred by increased
bonding between the amino acids near the
enzyme active site.
->the heat stabilizing factors (in cytosol) also
contribute
to
the
thermostability
of
enzymes.

 pH range:
The growth of the majority of bacteria
usually over pH range 4.0-8.5
pH range classifications include:
Acidophile (pH < 5.4)
-coal refuse tips, acidic mines wastes
-Acontium velatum

 Neutrophile (pH 5.4 - 8.5)

Most human pathogens are
neutrophiles, which have optimal pH 7.
Alkaliphile (pH 7.0 - 11.5)
Soda lakes and alkaline springs
Vibrio cholerae, Chladosporium

The fungi that have grow at extremes of pH

are found to have an internal,cytosolic pH of
about pH 7.
Its suggest that fungal cytosol has strong
buffering capacity. Even when external cellular
pH is changed by several units, the cytosolic
pH changes at most 0.2 - 0.3 units.
This could be achieved by several ways:-

a)

b)

c)

By pumping H+ ions out through the cell

membrane to counter the inflow of H+ in
acidic environments
By exchange of materials between the
cytosol and the vacuoles (which normally
have acidic contents)
By the interconvention of sugars and polyols
(polyhydrics alcohols) such as mannitol which
involves the release of H+

Because the cytosolic pH is tightly regulated,

any perturbation of cytosolic pH can act as
intracellular signal leading to differentiation
or change of growth polarity of fungi.

Eg: fungi stems from the fact that the

cleavage of zoospores in the sporangia of
Phytophthora. It is found that cytosolic pH
was raised transiently from 6.84 7.04 .
However, no zoospores cleavage occur if the
sporangia had been microinjected with a
buffer of pH 7, to prevent any change in
cytosolic pH.

 There are many degrees of oxygen

requirement among microorganisms,
described as:
aerobes
obligate aerobes
facultative aerobes
microaerophiles
anaerobes
obligate anaerobes

 Aerobes - microorganism that can utilize

molecular oxygen as its final electron acceptor,
e.g as in cellular (aerobic) respiration.
Obligate aerobes - organisms that
are able to grow in the presence of
atmospheric oxygen concentrations
growth is reduced if partial pressure of
oxygen is lowered.
use O2 as a final electron acceptor
cannot ferment if no oxygen.
Armillaria mellea

 Facultative aerobes - microorganism

that grow in aerobic conditions but also
can grow in the absence of oxygen by
fermenting sugars.
Energy yield from fermentation much
lower than aerobic fermentation.
Mucor hiemalis, Aspergillus fumigatus
Microaerophiles - microorganisms which
are unable to grow when oxygen
concentrations reach those found in air
(20%) but nevertheless whose growth
requires the presence of some oxygen

 Anaerobes - microorganism that need not

utilize molecular oxygen as a final electron
acceptor , in order to produce ATP.
Obligate anaerobes - microorganism
that is killed by exposure to oxygen.
Live as part of an intimate and complex
microbial community, or consortium in
animals foregut (rumen).
Members of Chytridiomycota.

The
physiology
of oxygen
tolerance

The existence of strictly anaerobic organisms

such as rumen chytrids and ciliated protozoa
indicates that oxygen can be toxic it kills
these organism when they are exposed to
even a low level of oxygen.

Several highly reactive forms of oxygen such

as superoxide anion, hydrogen peroxide and
hydroxyl radical are produced inadvertently
when oxygen reacts with some cellular
constituents such as flavoprotein and
quinones.

These reactive oxygen species

damaged cellular components.

would

1.

All organism need certain mechanism for

coping with the toxic effect of oxygen in order
to grow in the presence of oxygen.
The mechanisms required certain enzymes
such as superoxide dismutase and catalase.
Superoxide is convert to hydrogen peroxide
by enzymes superoxide dismutase.

2) Hydrogen peroxide is then converted to

harmless water and oxygen by enzyme
catalase.
2H2O2

2H2O +
O2
catalase

-> Obligate anaerobes lack one or both of these

enzymes.
->eg: Neocallimastix has superoxide dismutase
but not catalase; so its inability to deal with
H2O2 probably for its failure to tolerate the
presence of oxygen.

 Fungi need water for uptake of nutrient

and metabolic reactions.
Water unavailability = low growth:
High extracellular osmotic pressures
remove water from cells. This inhibits
cell growth.
High solute solutions tend to inhibit
growth by most microorganisms capable
of growing at the typically low solute
concentrations of most environments.

 Organisms adapted to growth at

relatively high and very high salt
concentrations, which are referred to as
facultative and extreme halophiles.
Fungi more resistant:
Molds and yeasts tend to be much more
resistant to high or low osmotic
pressures than are bacteria.
Molds, but not bacteria, tend to be the
spoilers of fruits and grains.

Typically, fungi are respond to low external

water potentials by generate an even lower
internal osmotic potential, so that the cell
remain turgid.
Sometimes, this is achieved by selective
uptake and accumulation of K+ by marine
fungi.
However, high ionic level are potentially
damaging to the cells.
Marine fungi seem to take up K+ ions
primarily to prevent the more Na+ ions from
entering the cell.

1.

Common method of balancing a high external

osmotic environment are:Accumulation of sugars and sugar derivatives
that do not interfere with cellular metabolic
pathway.
This osmotically active compound are termed
compatible solutes.
Eg; glycerol (compatible solute) in highly
xerophilic
(drought-loving)
yeast
and
filamentous fungi.

water stress-tolerant and water stressintolerant fungi

-> Both produces compatible solutes but differ
in their ability to retain the solutes
-> eg: Saccharomyces cerevisiae (stressintolerant) and Zygosaccharomyces rouxii
(stress-tolerant)
->both produce glycerol in same degree when
subjected to water stress. However, glycerol
leaks from S.cerevisiae into culture medium
whereas Z.rouxii retain glycerol.

Compatible solute in fungal spores

->spore with high solute content can germinate
faster-lower humidity
(spore need to sustain high humidity to
germinate)
-> compatible solutes derived from nutrient
storage reserved or from nutrient taken up by
the cells
->eg; Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium
anisopliae (insect-pathogenic fungi)

2.

Commonly grow as saprotroph on the

surfaces of living or senescing plants leavestermed phyllosphere

Eg: Cladosporium, Alternaria, Sydowia,etc

->the presence of dark pigmented (melanized)
hyphae and spores-ability to withstand
periodic wetting and drying

Phyllosphere fungi are naturally and specially

adapted to the fluctuating moisture condition
in their habitat (kitchen & bathroom walls)

The response of the fungi to duration of

exposure to light varies with the variation
in the light intensity.
Light in the near-ultraviolet (NUV) and
visible parts of spectrum (from about 380720 nm)has relatively little effect on
vegetative growth of fungi.
Blue light (450 nm) induces the production
of carotenoid pigments in hyphae and
spores of several fungi, including
Neurospora crassa.

Light also act as trigger for the production

of asexual sporing structures or sexual
reproductive structures in several fungi.
e.g,toadstool and many Basidiomycota.
Variation in photoresponses of different
fungi almost certainly related to habitat
requirement.
Alternaria spp. are induced to sporulate
by UV irradiation (280-290 nm) and in
Botrytis cinerea the triggering by NUV is
reversed by subsequent exposure to the
blue light,

Genetic dissection of blue light perception in

Neurospora crassa.

N. crassa being an important model

eukaryotes

It have relatively small genome (about 40

megabases)
,
rapid
growth
and
manipulability, ease of genetic manipulation
by random and stable integration of foreign
DNA and an abundance of well-characterized
mutants.

It also preferred model organism

investigating light perception because :

i.

It perceives light only in blue/UV range

(involved few genes in this response)
It shows a pronounced Circadian rhythma molecular clock that has innate period
length close to 24 hours (can be reset by
environmental light cues)

ii.

for

There is a strong interaction between the

circadian clock of Neurospora and the
perception
of
light
and
subsequent
transduction pathway.
The remarkable feature of blue-light response
in N.crassa is that it involves only 2 protein
components and very short signaling
cascade.
There seem to be a dual light-perception
system:

i.
ii.

There seem to be a dual light-perception

system:
Involves WC-1/WC-2 proteins
Involves VIVID protein
Both
systems
involved
at
least
2
photoreceptors that serve different roles.

1.
-

WC-1/WC-2
Involves the fungal blue light photoreceptorregulatory protein termed White Collar 1(WC1)
WC-1 protein interact with DNA to initiate
gene transcription
Another protein (WC-2) act as transcription
factor and form complex with WC-1
This WC-1/WC-2 complex is localized in
nucleus and targets the light signal to the
promoter of the blue light-regulated genes.

-WC-1 and WC-2 are wildtype proteins unable

to induced carotenoid synthesis in response
to blue light.
-this system is responsible for dark-to-light
transition.

2. VIVID protein (2nd blue light-photoreceptor)

-involved another mutant gene,termed vivid
that causes a sustained expression of
carotenoid genes in light.
-this VIVID protein is located at the cytoplasm
rather than the nucleus and bind to flavintype chromophore.
-it responses to different light intensities and
modulating the circadian clock.
-the VIVID protein enables Neurospora to
detect changes in light intensity and regulate
the
production
of
carotenoid
against
photodamage.

THANKS FOR YOUR

ATTENTION