Aspergillus peritonitis is uncommon, but it is associated with high mortality and morbidity in patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis (PD). We report two cases of Aspergillus tamarii peritonitis that were initially misidentified as A. flavus by the conventional culture method. Nucleotide sequences of internal transcribed spacer regions of the ribosomal DNA gene as A. tamarii correctly identified the isolate. Despite early catheter removal and an appropriate antifunal agent, both patients had dismal outcomes. Nucleic acid sequencing offers an additional tool for better diagnosing the species within the genus of pathogenic microbes.

Amylases are one of the main enzymes used in various industries such as food, fermentation, textile, and pharmaceuticals. Microorganisms are the potent sources of amylase enzyme, apart from plant and animal sources. Fungal amylases are more stable than bacterial amylases. The production of extracellular α-amylase from Aspergillus tamarii MTCC5152 using solid-state and submerged fermentation (SSF and SmF) and the various nutritional factors influencing its production were studied. A higher activity of α-amylase (519.40 u/g) was attained in a medium having wheat bran (WB) alone as the substrate at an initial moisture content of 70% (v/w) with 2.5% (v/w) of inoculum level (containing 106 spores/ml) after 4 days of incubation at 28°C by SSF. Addition of 1% glucose to WB containing basal medium enhanced α-amylase production (6.49 u/ml) after 4 days of incubation by SmF method. Comparative evaluation of enzyme production by SSF and SmF methods produced better results in SSF method.

Banana fruit rot is a common postharvest disease of the banana fruit. The appearance of rot symptoms on the surface of the fruits reduces the quality and marketability of banana. From rot lesions on banana fruits, three Aspergillus isolates were isolated. Based on morphological characteristics and sequences of Internal Transcribed Spacer, β-tubulin and calmodulin, the isolates were identified as A. tamarii. Pathogenicity tests of the isolates, conducted using mycelial plugs with wounded and unwounded treatments, showed A. tamarii as the pathogen of banana fruit rot. Rot symptoms were highly severe on wounded banana fruits compared to unwounded fruits, and therefore, wounded banana fruits are more susceptible to A. tamarii infection. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of A. tamarii as a causal pathogen of banana fruit rot. This study indicated A. tamarii is one of postharvest rot pathogens of banana.
Reput buah pisang merupakan penyakit lepas tuai yang lazim pada buah pisang. Kemunculan gejala reput pada permukaan buah mengurangkan kualiti dan kebolehpasaran buah pisang. Dari lesi reput pada buah pisang, tiga pencilan Aspergillus telah dipencilkan. Berdasarkan ciri-ciri morfologi dan jujukan Trankripsi Penjarak Dalaman (ITS), β-tubulin dan kalmodulin, pencilan tersebut dikenal pasti sebagai A. tamarii. Ujian kepatogenan yang dilakukan menggunakan palam miselium dengan rawatan luka dan tidak luka, menunjukkan A. tamarii merupakan patogen reput buah pisang. Gejala reput amat teruk pada buah pisang yang luka berbanding buah yang tidak luka. Oleh itu, buah pisang yang luka lebih mudah dijangkiti A. tamarii. Pada pengetahuan kami, ini adalah laporan pertama A. tamarii sebagai patogen penyebab reput buah pisang. Kajian ini menunjukkan A. tamarii merupakan salah satu patogen reput pisang lepas tuai.

In the present study, generation of prebiotic fructooligosaccharides (FOS) using Aspergillus tamarii FTase was optimized by applying response surface methodology. Optimal FOS (251 g L-1 ) was generated at 28.4°C, pH 7.0 and 50% (w/v) sucrose leading to 1.97-fold yield enhancement. The m-FTase was purified using ultrafiltration followed by HiTrap Q HP anion exchange chromatography resulting in 2.15-fold purified FTase with 12.76 U mg-1 specific activity. Purified FTase (75 kDa) had Km and Vmax values of 1049.717 mM and 2.094 µmol min-1  mg-1 , respectively. FOS incorporation led to upregulation of caspase 3, caspase 9, and Bax genes suggesting mitochondrial apoptosis activation in cancer cells. The study describes characteristics of purified FTase from A. tamarii, production optimization of FOS and unravels the role of FOS in anticancer activity against HT-29 cells. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: This study provides detailed insights of kinetic and thermodynamic characteristics of purified FTase, a prebiotic FOS-generating enzyme. Moreover, the role of the apoptotic genes involved in anticancer activity, and the prebiotic potential of FOS is also investigated. These findings are important in the context of FOS applications, and the optimized production strategies make it useful for industrial application.

Acute stunting in children, liver cancer, and death often occur due to human exposure to aflatoxins in food. The severity of aflatoxin contamination depends on the type of Aspergillus fungus infecting the crops. In this study, Aspergillus species were isolated from households’ staple foods and were characterized for different aflatoxin chemotypes. The non-aflatoxigenic chemotypes were evaluated for their ability to reduce aflatoxin levels produced by aflatoxigenic A. flavus strains on maize grains. Aspergillus flavus (63%), A. tamarii (14%), and A. niger (23%) were the main species present. The A. flavus species included isolates that predominantly produced aflatoxins B1 and B2, with most isolates producing a high amount (>20 ug/µL) of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), and a marginal proportion of them also producing G aflatoxins with a higher level of aflatoxin G1 (AFG1) than AFB1. Some non-aflatoxigenic A. tamarii demonstrated a strong ability to reduce the level of AFB1 by more than 95% when co-inoculated with aflatoxigenic A. flavus. Therefore, field evaluation of both non-aflatoxigenic A. flavus and A. tamarii would be an important step toward developing biocontrol agents for mitigating field contamination of crops with aflatoxins in Uganda.

The present study evaluated the influence of the variables polyethylene glycol (PEG) molar mass, pH, PEG concentration and sodium citrate concentration in the integrated production of the protease from Aspergillus tamarii Kita UCP1279 by extractive fermentation, obtaining as a response the partition coefficient (K), activity yield (Y) and concentration factor (CF). The enzyme preferably partitioned to the top phase and obtained in the system formed by variables MPEG = 400 g mol-1, CPEG = 20% (w w-1), and CCIT = 20% (w w-1) and pH 6, in this condition were obtained CF = 1.90 and Y = 79.90%. The protease showed stability at a temperature of 60 °C for 180 min, with optimum temperature 40 °C and pH 8.0. For the ions and inhibitors effects, the protease activity increased when exposed to Fe2+, Ca2+ and Zn2 + and inhibited by EDTA, being classified as metalloprotease. The kinetic parameters Km (35.63 mg mL-1) and Vmax (1.205 mg mL-1 min-1) were also estimated. Thus, the protease showed desirable characteristics that enable future industrial applications, especially, for beer industry.

Proteolytic enzymes are one of the significant commercially manufactured enzymes. The manufacture of extracellular alkaline protease by Aspergillus tamarii MTCC5152 was explored using several agricultural by-products as substrates viz., cottonseed meal, wheat bran, skimmed milk and soya flour in submerged fermentation, were found to be efficient for enzyme production and commercially significant. Response surface methodology (RSM) is a statistics-based experimental design, sourced to explore the impact of physical parameters on the manufacture of protease from A. tamarii in a batch stirred tank bioreactor (STBR). The four substantial variables (pH, temperature, inoculum size, and agitation) were carefully chosen for optimization analyses and the statistical pattern was created using a central composite design and the quadratic model has been developed. The optimum conditions for protease production (1.51 U mL-1) where: pH 6.4, temperature 27 °C, inoculum size 2.6%, and agitation 327 rpm. The analysis revealed that the anticipated values were in accord with trial data with a correlation coefficient of 0.969.

Aspergillus tamarii appears to be an emerging aetiological agent of human keratomycoses in South India. The investigated strains were isolated from six suspected fungal keratitis patients attending a tertiary care eye hospital in Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu, India), and were initially identified by the microscopic examinations of the scrapings and the cultures. Our data suggest that A. tamarii could be easily overlooked when identification is carried out based on morphological characteristics alone, while the sequence analysis of the calmodulin gene can be used successfully to recognize this species accurately. According to the collected clinical data, ocular trauma is a common risk factor for the infection that gradually developed from mild to severe ulcers and could be healed with an appropriate combined antifungal therapy. Antifungal susceptibility testing revealed that A. tamarii strains are susceptible to the most commonly used topical or systemic antifungal agents (i.e., econazole, itraconazole and ketoconazole) except for natamycin. Moreover, natamycin proved to be similarly less effective than the azoles against A. tamarii in our drug interaction tests, as the predominance of indifferent interactions was revealed between natamycin and econazole and between natamycin and itraconazole as well. Four and five isolates of A. tamarii were confirmed to produce cyclopiazonic acid (CPA) in RPMI-1640 - which is designed to mimic the composition of human extracellular fluids - and in yeast extract sucrose (YES) medium, respectively, which is a widely used culture medium for testing mycotoxin production. Although a ten times lower mycelial biomass was recorded in RPMI-1640 than in YES medium, the toxin contents of the samples were of the same order of magnitude in both types of media. There might be a relationship between the outcome of infections and the toxigenic properties of the infecting fungal strains. However, this remains to be investigated in the future.

The production of bioethanol from non-food agricultural residues represents an alternative energy source to fossil fuels for incorporation into the world\'s economy. Within the context of bioconversion of plant biomass into renewable energy using improved enzymatic cocktails, Illumina RNA-seq transcriptome profiling was conducted on a strain of Aspergillus tamarii, efficient in biomass polysaccharide degradation, in order to identify genes encoding proteins involved in plant biomass saccharification. Enzyme production and gene expression was compared following growth in liquid and semi-solid culture with steam-exploded sugarcane bagasse (SB) (1% w/v) and glucose (1% w/v) employed as contrasting sole carbon sources. Enzyme production following growth in liquid minimum medium supplemented with SB resulted in 0.626 and 0.711 UI.mL-1 xylanases after 24 and 48 h incubation, respectively. Transcriptome profiling revealed expression of over 7120 genes, with groups of genes modulated according to solid or semi-solid culture, as well as according to carbon source. Gene ontology analysis of genes expressed following SB hydrolysis revealed enrichment in xyloglucan metabolic process and xylan, pectin and glucan catabolic process, indicating up-regulation of genes involved in xylanase secretion. According to carbohydrate-active enzyme (CAZy) classification, 209 CAZyme-encoding genes were identified with significant differential expression on liquid or semi-solid SB, in comparison to equivalent growth on glucose as carbon source. Up-regulated CAZyme-encoding genes related to cellulases (CelA, CelB, CelC, CelD) and hemicellulases (XynG1, XynG2, XynF1, XylA, AxeA, arabinofuranosidase) showed up to a 10-fold log2FoldChange in expression levels. Five genes from the AA9 (GH61) family, related to lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase (LPMO), were also identified with significant expression up-regulation. The transcription factor gene XlnR, involved in induction of hemicellulases, showed up-regulation on liquid and semi-solid SB culture. Similarly, the gene ClrA, responsible for regulation of cellulases, showed increased expression on liquid SB culture. Over 150 potential transporter genes were also identified with increased expression on liquid and semi-solid SB culture. This first comprehensive analysis of the transcriptome of A. tamarii contributes to our understanding of genes and regulatory systems involved in cellulose and hemicellulose degradation in this fungus, offering potential for application in improved enzymatic cocktail development for plant biomass degradation in biorefinery applications.

An extracellular serine-protease from Aspergillus tamarii URM4634 was purified and characterized. The possibility of using Aspergillus tamarii URM4634 protease in detergent formulations and collagenolytic activity was investigated. The protease demonstrated excellent stability at pH range 7.0-11.0, the optimum being at pH 9.0. The enzyme was stable at 40 °C for 180 min, enhanced by Mg++ and Ca++, but inhibited by Zn++, and strongly inhibited by phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride (PMSF), suggested as serine-protease. The azocasein substrate result showed Km = 0.434 mg/mL and Vmax = 7.739 mg/mL/min. SDS-PAGE and azocasein zymography showed that the purified alkaline protease (2983.8 U/mg) had a molecular mass of 49.3 kDa. The enzyme was purified by column chromatography using Sephadex A50 resin. The proteolytic activity was activated by SDS (sodium dodecyl sulfate), Tween-80, Tween 20 and Triton-100. This study demonstrated that A. tamarii URM4634 protease has potent, stable and compatible collagenolytic activity to the desired level in local laundry detergent brands compared with similar enzymes produced by solid-state fermentation. This protease can thus be chosen as an option in both the food industry to tenderization meat and the detergent industry to washing process.