The Journal of General and Applied Microbiology
Online ISSN : 1349-8037
Print ISSN : 0022-1260
ISSN-L : 0022-1260
Full Papers
Antifungal activity of rhamnolipids against dimorphic fungi
Ruyi ShaQin Meng
Author information
JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

2016 Volume 62 Issue 5 Pages 233-239

Details
Abstract

In this paper, rhamnolipids are investigated, for the first time, for their feasibility for inhibiting dimorphic fungi. Rhamnolipids were found to effectively inhibit a dimorphic fungus isolated from tomato plants which was identified as Mucor circinelloides according to characterizations by morphologies as well as 28S rDNA sequences. Rhamnolipids markedly reduced growth of this fungus in both the yeast-like form and the filamentous form. Such an inhibitive effect was similarly obtained with Verticillium dahliae, a representative member of dimorphic fungi, confirming the effectiveness of rhamnolipids in the two growth forms of dimorphic fungi. Interestingly, rhamnolipids showed a greater inhibitive function in the case of the pathogenic growth mode of dimorphic fungi, such as the mycelium growth for M. circinelloides and the yeast-like growth for V. dahliae, than their non-pathogenic modes. The use of rhamnolipids might greatly reduce the frequently-reported drugresistance to the common anti-fungal agents by deterring the possible switch between the two modes of dimorphic fungi. Overall, rhamnolipids as environment-friendly biocontrol agents have a potential use in protecting plants from dimorphic fungi infections, and could also offer guidance toward future research into controlling dimorphic disease infection in humans.

Content from these authors
© 2016, Applied Microbiology, Molecular and Cellular Biosciences Research Foundation
Previous article Next article
feedback
Top