, 2008) species. Antioxidant activity was also correlated with the polyphenol content of the fermented products. In conclusion, we have isolated an S07-2 compound from B. subtilis B38 with a molecular mass of 905.6 Da. This compound displayed antibacterial activity against food-spoilage microorganisms, DPPH radical-scavenging activity and an iron-chelating MLN0128 price capacity. Consequently, the S07-2 compound could serve as a food preservative and might be a good alternative to synthetic antioxidant compounds already used in medicine. To our

knowledge, no bioactive peptides with the same characteristics as the peptide described in the present study have been reported previously from B. subtilis strains. Further investigations are in progress to determine its chemical structure as well as its mode of action. This work was supported by grants from the Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur, de la Recherche Scientifique et de la Technologie of Tunisia. We thank Prof. E. Aouani for valuable discussion and critical reading of the manuscript. “
“Filamentous ascomycetes, including mitotic holomorphs, have constitutively transcribed MAT (mating type)

genes. These genes encode transcription factors considered to be the major regulators of sexual communication. The proven targets of the MAT transcription factors are pheromone find protocol precursor and pheromone receptor genes. However, recent studies demonstrated

that MAT proteins may also affect other genes not involved Cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase directly in the mating process. When grown in the light, Fusarium verticillioides produces the acidic xanthophyll neurosporoxanthin and lower amounts of nonpolar precursor carotenes, such as phytoene, torulene, β-carotene, and γ-carotene. Depending on the illumination conditions, a drastic decrease or the absence of light-inducible carotenoid accumulation was detected in three independent ΔFvMAT1-2-1 knockout mutants of F. verticillioides as compared with the parental wild-type strain. Transcript levels of the carB, carRA, and carT genes, encoding key enzymes of the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway, were also significantly reduced in the mutants. The downregulation of these genes in the ΔFvMAT1-2-1 mutant indicates that MAT genes play a role in the control of carotenogenesis in Fusarium. The finding that mating-type genes regulate important processes unrelated to sex helps to understand the presence of functional MAT genes in asexually reproducing fungus populations. In heterothallic species of filamentous ascomycetes, sexual reproduction requires interaction between two strains belonging to opposite mating types, while homothallic species are self-fertile and can complete the sexual cycle by mating within the same thallus.