Abstract—The species Amorphotheca resinae is best known among micromycetes that deteriorate aviation fuel. It lives in natural conditions in various biogeocenoses and is known as a component of soil mycobiota. Micromycetes of this type have the ability to obtain the necessary carbon for life from hydrocarbon fuel. This happens through the breakdown of complex hydrocarbons to simpler compounds. The growth of A. resinae in fuel leads to numerous problems associated with the operation of aviation equipment: destruction of nonmetallic materials, increased corrosion of metal elements, and clogging of fuel filters with mycelial biomass. According to some literature sources, not all strains of this species living in natural conditions can absorb petroleum hydrocarbons. According to other data, there is a tendency that the ability to absorb hydrocarbons is becoming characteristic of an increasing number of soil strains of A. resinae. The authors have studied the growth capacity of seven strains of A. resinae isolated from various aviation fuel samples and seven strains isolated from different geographical locations and substrates: soil, air, wood, and rooms. Among the studied strains of A. resinae were both those able to develop due to aviation fuel hydrocarbons and those without this ability. At the same time, visual and quantitative methods for evaluating the growth rate and intensity of the studied fungi strains do not exclude each other and give comparable results. A. resinae strains isolated from fuel samples demonstrated much more active development compared to strains isolated from natural habitats. Five strains of A. resinae isolated from different geographical locations of fuel samples showed almost the same degree of development in the amount of biomass formed during one month.

Laboratory animals (the California rabbit) were immunized with natural preparations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida krusei yeasts. The resulting sera have been analyzed with ligand libraries constructed from synthetic oligosaccharides related to the main carbohydrate components of the fungal cell wall. It is shown that the antibodies in the studied sera predominantly recognize mannan fragments, with the carbohydrate specificity profile being different for S. cerevisiae and C. krusei. Sera against S. cerevisiae contained antibodies that recognize β-glucan, and the minimal recognizable epitope is linear trisaccharide. These results are necessary for the creation of needed immunoenzyme diagnostics for the detection and species characterization of fungi.

Brush rabbits were immunized with injections prepared from the fungi Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger, and Aspergillus repens. A library of synthetic biotinylated oligosaccharides containing the key fragments of antigenic polysaccharides of the fungal cell wall—galctomannan, α- and β-glucans, mannan, and chitin—was used to analyze carbohydrate specificity. The anticarbohydrate antibodies obtained from animals immunized with preparations from A. fumigatus and A. repens predominantly recognized epitopes containing galactofuranoside residues, while the majority of the antibodies against A. niger bound the chitooligosaccharide ligand. These results are the basis for the identification of specific markers required for the development of immunoenzyme test systems.

Original data on the survival of fungal spores exposed to space conditions are presented. The experiment was carried out on the Earth-orbiting Russian satellite Foton-M4. The flight duration of the satellite was 45 days. Thirteen fungal species (hyaline as well as pigmented) from 10 genera recovered from destructed stone materials were studied. Sterile quartz sand was inoculated by the fungal spores and was placed into Eppendorf tubes. During the space flight, the Eppendorf tubes with fungal spores were kept inside the Foton descent capsule in the “Biokont” containers and on the external surface of the capsule in the “Exobiofrost” containers exposed to the open space as well. Spores of ten species (77% of all tested species), i.e. Acremonium charticola, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus versicolor, Chaetomium globosum, Cladosporium sphaerospermum, Penicillium chrysogenum, Penicillium verrucosum, Purpureocillium lilacinum, Sarocladium kiliense, and Trichoderma harzianum, survived after the flight both inside and outside the descent capsule. Only three species (23% of all tested species), i.e. Acremonium furcatum, Engyodontium album and Verticillium zaregamsianum, failed to survive outside as well as inside the capsule. Spore viability differed depending on the fungal species. Thus, spores of some fungal species are able to survive under the complex of stress factors such as low temperature values, radiation, etc. We have shown that micromycetes can be used as a model group for study of eukaryotic organisms’ resistance to stress factors, due to their high tolerance not only to extreme terrestrial environments, but to the extraterrestrial ones as well.

Original data on the survival of fungal spores exposed to space conditions are presented. The experiment was carried out on the Earth-orbiting Russian satellite Foton-M4. The flight duration of the satellite was 45 days. Thirteen fungal species (hyaline as well as pigmented) from 10 genera recovered from destructed stone materials were studied. Sterile quartz sand was inoculated by the fungal spores and was placed into Eppendorf tubes. During the space flight, the Eppendorf tubes with fungal spores were kept inside the Foton descent capsule in the “Biokont” containers and on the external surface of the capsule in the “Exobiofrost” containers exposed to the open space as well. Spores of ten species (77% of all tested species), i.e. Acremonium charticola, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus versicolor, Chaetomium globosum, Cladosporium sphaerospermum, Penicillium chrysogenum, Penicillium verrucosum, Purpureocillium lilacinum, Sarocladium kiliense, and Trichoderma harzianum, survived after the flight both inside and outside the descent capsule. Only three species (23% of all tested species), i.e. Acremonium furcatum, Engyodontium album and Verticillium zaregamsianum, failed to survive outside as well as inside the capsule. Spore viability differed depending on the fungal species. Thus, spores of some fungal species are able to survive under the complex of stress factors such as low temperature values, radiation, etc. We have shown that micromycetes can be used as a model group for study of eukaryotic organisms’ resistance to stress factors, due to their high tolerance not only to extreme terrestrial environments, but to the extraterrestrial ones as well.

Многолетние микробиологические исследования пыльцы березы повислой, произрастающей на территории Москвы и Московской области, показали, что около трети проанализированных образцов содержат гриб, идентифицированный нами по морфолого-культуральным и молекулярно-генетическим критериям как Quambalaria cyanescens (de Hoog & G.A. de Vries) Z.W. de Beer, Begerow & R. Bauer. Данный вид ранее был известен преимущественно как симбионт тропических растений родов Eucalyptus и Corymbia и на территории России раньше не выделялся. Нами впервые установлена тесная ассоциация вида Q. cyanescens с березой повислой. Показано, что микромицет регулярно обнаруживается не только в пробах пыльцы, но на поверхности и внутри сережек, на поверхности листьев и веток березы, при этом не выделяется с других видов растений из районов проведенного исследования. В статье приведены морфолого-культуральные характеристики, особенности ультраструктуры клеток, данные по встречаемости гриба, а также филогенетический анализ выделенных штаммов.

Long-term microbiological investigation of the pollen of silver birch (Betula pendula) in the Moscow and Moscow oblast areas revealed that almost one-third of the analyzed samples contained the fungus identified by morphological, cultural, and molecular genetic techniques as Quambalaria cyanescens (de Hoog & G.A. de Vries) Z.W. de Beer, Begerow & R. Bauer. This species was previously known mostly as a symbiont of tropical plants of the genera Eucalyptus and Corymbia and have not been isolated in Russia. We revealed a close association between Quambalaria cyanescens and silver birch. The micromycete was regularly detected in pollen samples, as well as on the inside and outside of the aments, and on the surface of leaves and branches. It was never isolated from other plant species in the investigated area. The data on the morphological and cultural characteristics of the fungus, its cell ultrastructure, and occurrence are presented, as well as the phylogenetic analysis of the isolated strains.