BIO 411 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Aspergillus Oryzae, Aspergillus Flavus, Ergosterol
Document Summary
Focus will be on features important or unique to fungi. Metabolism: sum total of all chemical reactions in an organism. Primary metabolism: reactions necessary for the growth of an organism: cellular respiration, amino acid biosynthesis, etc, main energy storage compounds are lipids, glycogen, and trehalose, mannitol (unique sugars) Secondary metabolism: chemical reactions whose products are not directly or obviously involved in normal growth, occurs in plants, fungi and bacteria. In fungi it is the source of mycotoxins, antibiotics. Aspergillus oryzae and 98. 0% homology at the protein level: a. flavus aflatoxin, a. oryzae used to make soy sauce. Dozens languished in jail for months without trials: evidence, 1. Symptoms of bewitched: convulsive ergotism (hallucinations that led to accusations; convulsions, seizures, some gangrenous ergotism in livestock livestock with high abortion rates (evidence in humans, 3. Appropriate weather for c. purpurea: tree ring analyses indicate that weather at time of most bewitchings conducive to fungal growth (cool winter, wet.
