The fungi invade plants .

The fungi invade plants .
We joke so to say , "Neither animals nor plants , fungi are so weird that form a separate kingdom in nature . Versatile , enter both in cheesemaking as in quality control of industrial products " - Marcelo Affini Ivonete and D. Lucírio .
They mofam breads , spoil shoes and dye walls with green spots . While sources of medicines - particularly antibiotics - and provocateurs of diseases worldwide are also consumed in the form of noble dishes such as rare and expensive truffles and mushrooms . Pioneers among life forms on Earth are so different from each other and different from all other beings of the planet , after much controversy about its classification considered just a realm apart in nature . Fungi , these strange creatures that grow in living organisms as the dead begin to be desirable to help Brazilian companies in quality control of industrial products . Of drawbacks , molds and mildews have become more an instrument of scientists in research with drugs , disinfectants , insecticides and , more recently , anti-corrosion and simplifying the mechanisms of production of alcohol . This has increased the interest of various industries by fungi , a fact that is causing furor in Mycology ... " Laboratories that create , store and distribute , classifying them according to their origin and peculiar characteristics ." As demand grows , increases the number of types exploited. " In the frantic search to know them better , they won home ownership and pedigree " , compares the biologist and mycologist Mario Gatti , Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Rio de Janeiro . With 1942 different types , the Fiocruz mycology collection is the largest collection of Brazilian genre. Worldwide, there are about 300 seats fungi. The most comprehensive of these is the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC ) in the United States . There are available more than 50000 different micro -organisms , half composed of fungi , bacteria and protozoa , which served as the basis for almost all known collections . Used to provide samples for university research and sterility testing of drugs and cosmetics , the "factory " of fungi Fiocruz winning new customers . In past years , the number of requests for samples of fungi doubled compared to the previous year . Mario Gatti , one of the curators of this mycology collection , links growth to the validity of the Code of Consumer Protection . "Companies are more concerned with the quality assurance of their products ," says the scientist . Among the customers of banks fungi , the largest consumers of microorganisms on the planet were marketed drug manufacturers and cosmetics . Companies like Johnson & Johnson and Glaxo employing fungi in laboratory tests to monitor the quality of their products . The process involves purposely contaminate samples of what you want to test with fungi , especially Aspergillus niger , found in abundance in nature . Periodic analyzes are then made to see if the fungus population has increased or decreased . If not decreased to almost none left over , which means that the preservative is efficient. " Our products on the shelves need to keep the same ability to preserve the newly manufactured product ," says Lenir Garcia , manager of microbiology at Johnson & Johnson . In search of their main food , carbon , some fungi are hated because they degrade materials widely used in industry , such as plastics and metals . To find out if your product will last beyond the gates of the factory, those responsible for quality control of companies put us in contact with the fungi exist out there . That makes five years ago the Military Institute of war materials ( Imbel ) to measure the corrosion resistance of the components of their radio transmitters and apparatus for explosive detonators . Ulysses D' Elia , the biologist responsible for this work , puts the parts to be examined together with a common potato in a sealed chamber , where he also introduced a pool of specially selected yeast . " On land , at sea or in the air , the equipment must withstand the most varied weather , possible to occur in any region of Brazil ," said D' Elia . Inside the chamber are simulated for 28 days all environmental conditions to which the devices are subjected. " The potato acts as a thermometer , which shows whether the microbes are active . If so , fungi take all the potatoes , "explains the scientist ( D' Elia ) . Similar experiments are also performed by the Research Institute of the Navy , in tests of resistance to corrosion of the equipment of ships and submarines . Deteriorativa While the ability fungal problem for some, others have this feature a great ally . Such is the case of ethanol production that can become much simpler if it is applied to some studies conducted by scientists from the Institute of Chemistry, University of São Paulo . Headed Egyptian biochemist by Hamza El - Dorry , this team using the fungus Trichoderma reesei , discovered during the Second World War , to degrade cellulose ( the raw material of paper ) to obtain glucose , which then turns into the fermented alcohol. in the 1940s , the fungus was studied emergently by U.S. laboratories since disintegrated in a few days the fabric of tents Army soldiers on the battlefield . USP researchers have isolated the fungus gene that determines their characteristics gluttons . now , efforts are focused on knowing how it produces the enzyme that degrades cellulose to insert this gene in yeast conventionally used to convert glucose into alcohol . " we are creating a single, unified process , which allows to obtain alcohol up of the crushed cane sugar, wood and paper thrown away , "declared El - Dorry . yeasts are also used for making cherry wine and yeast for breads and cakes . Some fungi are still the cornerstone of fine cheeses . Saying that a cheese is moldy not necessarily mean it is spoiled. Rather : the taste of roquefort cheese , gorgonzola and camembert depend on the work of fungi . During the first two types, the tangy taste and strong aromam are only obtained by drilling through its ready-made pasta , which are introduced into molds which there develops in the presence of air. camembert the cheeses undergo a bath solution in a mold to reach the creamy texture feature . Growing from outside to inside of each cheese , fungi that form on the outside and white thin hard surface . Both green spots as white film are very different from the mold of a rotten cheese . molds such as Penicillium citrus, secrete potentially toxic substances , such as citrinin , that attack the liver cells. before arriving at the table , many foods can still make contact with fungi in the field.

In Brasilia , the National Research Center for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology, Embrapa ( Brazilian Agricultural Research ) is developing a catalog of over 300 fungal isolates for research on biological control of crops , or biological insecticides . Marcos Rodrigues de Faria , one of the agronomists involved in the project , explains how the tests are made for the creation of biopesticides : " You take the larvae of the insect against which one wants to fight . They are dipped in a liquid suspension contaminated with a fungus generally Beauveria bassiana or Metarhizium amisopliae . If he is able to kill the larva will be used as insecticide . " Harnessing the potential of fungi has not been an easy road to be traveled by scholars. Searches on several fronts since the late 1920s , when they came to the public 's bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovered only in 1960 it reached an agreement on the identity of these organisms . " Fungus is not a vegetable or animal, despite having characteristics of plants and animals ," says Pedrini Cunha Oliveira , pharmaceutical and biochemistry studies these beings since 1964 . Responsible for mycology department of Fiocruz , it teaches that " the fungus is considered animals because their food reserve is glycogen , not starch, as in all plants ." But it was also considered plant by its morphology : " If you looked under a microscope , the fungus looks like a flower . Yet they do not produce chloroplasts , thus do photosynthesis " . This difference in relation to other beings is leading to the creation of the kingdom Fungi , one of the five kingdoms of nature . The other four are Animalia , animals , Plantae , vegetables ; Monera , single-celled organisms like bacteria , and protists , unicellular organisms such as protozoa . Knowing exactly what these beings who play sometimes against , sometimes in favor of the man was only the beginning : " The history of the fungi is ... little studied ," says the scientist ( Pedrini ) , stating that he meets " his potential ... outstanding . "