Subject: Scientists Find Abundant Moldy Treasures, Including Penicillia

From: ARS News Service <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1999 10:07:07 -0500

STORY LEAD:
Scientists Find Abundant Moldy Treasures, Including Penicillia

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ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Ben Hardin, (309) 681-6597, [email-masked]
November 9, 1999
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Recently discovered natural chemicals extracted from molds may have
important practical applications as agricultural pesticides, animal health
products or antifungal antibiotics.

>From a collection of 600 molds that parasitize wood-decaying fungi, a team
of Agricultural Research Service and University of Iowa scientists found
dozens of chemicals that inhibit the growth of two grain-infecting molds,
Aspergillus flavus and Fusarium verticillioides. The team also has produced
about 1,600 fungal extracts that companies are screening for useful
chemicals.

ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research
agency.

Using an automated DNA sequencer, ARS scientists at the National Center for
Agricultural Utilization Research, Peoria, Illinois, determined that 39 of
the 600 mold cultures represented Penicillium species that were new to
science. In one fell swoop they had run into the largest discovery of new
Penicillium species by any person or group since the genus was first
described in 1809.

The new penicillia were added to the ARS Culture Collection's 102 previously
known species, including those that scientists at NCAUR used to help launch
the antibiotics industry a half century ago.

An article about the research appears in the November issue of ARS'
Agricultural
Research magazine, which can be found on the web at:

 http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/nov99/fungi1199.htm

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Scientific contacts: Donald T. Wicklow and Stephen W. Peterson, ARS National
Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, Peoria, IL 61604, phone (309)
681-6243 [Wicklow], (309) 681- 6384 [Peterson], fax (309) 681-6686,
[email-masked], [email-masked].
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