An isolate of Fusarium armeniacum (formerly F. acuminatum subsp. armeniacum) was obtained for the first time from rice cultivated in Aichi Prefecture. The isolate produced trichothecenes including T-2 toxin, 4,15-diacetoxyscirpenol, and neosolaniol in liquid culture. F. armeniacum has recently been reported to cause Fusarium head blight in wheat in the United States. The occurrence of this mycotoxigenic species in a double cropping area of wheat and rice may pose a potential threat to the safety of the agricultural products.

  We identified the causal agent of the blight disease of creeping bentgrass. When a representative isolate, #B-s1, reinfected the plant, the same fungus was reisolated from the diseased plant tissue. The pathogen was identified as Fusarium asiaticum by colony characteristics and sequence analysis. The isolate produced nivalenol on solid rice medium, which was detected by high performance liquid chromatography. In addition, all other isolates were determined as nivalenol chemotype of F. asiaticum by diagnostic PCR.

  The occurrence of zearalenone and the metabolites (zearalanone, zearalenols and zearalanols) in feeds distributed in Japan from fiscal years 2014 to 2019 was investigated using the official analytical method validated by the interlaboratory study. As a result of investigating on 121 samples of corn, 62 samples of soybean meal and 205 samples of formula feed, zearalenone was detected in over 90 % of the samples. Zearalanols were not detected in any samples. Among the zearalenone metabolites, β-zearalenol was detected at the highest rate. Furthermore, it was suggested that the proportion of the zearalenone metabolites differed depending on the type of raw material.

  Koji mold (Aspergillus oryzae) is an industrially important filamentous fungus that has been used in the production of sake and miso for a long time. In sake making, as it is said, “Three important steps, Koji making, Moto-starter, and Moromi main fermentation, in order”, Koji making is the most important, and much research has been done on the breeding of Koji mold from an applied point of view. However, genetic and cell biology studies were far behind yeast. The authors made a detailed observation of organelles in Koji mold cells by using genomic information and clarified the cell structure specific to filamentous fungi. In this article, I will focus on organelles and introduce the life activities of Koji mold.

  Kojic acid is a secondary metabolite of Aspergillus oryzae, which was discovered after the koji mold used in the process of brewing sake was thought to contain ingredients that are beneficial to the skin. In this study, we analyzed the effect of LaeA and five velvet genes (veA, velB, velC, velD, and vosA), which are presumed to be involved in the control of kojic acid production, on the production of kojic acid by creating a gene-disruption strain. As a result, it was found that each gene has a different role in the control of kojic acid production.

  Infection with Fusarium graminearum causes not only yield and quality losses of wheat and barley but also contamination with mycotoxins. There are no commercial cultivars that show strong resistance to F. graminearum and, moreover, the emergence of fungicide-resistant strains has been reported. Nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) has been found to be effective in inducing the resistance against F. graminearum as a plant activator. However, it is not known how NMN treatment affects the penetration behavior of F. graminearum. In this study, we established a real-time bioimaging system to analyze the penetration behavior of F. graminearum, and investigated the effect of NMN treatment on it. When treated with NMN, the mycelium did not grow in a straight line and behaved as if it had failed to penetrate the host cell and was repeatedly changing direction to find another penetration site.

  Webinar 2022 Series 1 was held on Jan 27th, 2022, by the Indonesian Phytopathological Society (Perhimpunan Fitopatologi Indonesia, https://pfi.or.id/home). The author was invited by Professor Achmadi Priyatmojo (Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Gadjah Mada) to deliver the lecture ‘Pathogenicity gene discovered from natural mutants in Fusarium head blight pathogen of wheat and barley’. This report briefly shows the contents of this webinar.