
Scientists Find Abundant Moldy Treasures,
Including PenicilliaBy Ben Hardin November 9, 1999Recently 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,
Aspergillusflavus and Fusariumverticillioides.
The team also has produced about 1,600 fungal extracts that companies are
screening for useful chemicals. ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agricultures 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 Collections 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 Scientific contact: 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 protected],
[email protected].
U.S. Department of Agriculture | |