circinelloides could cause a series of pathological

changes in host tissues and was disseminated in different organs. Vessel thrombosis and tissue necrosis are two major hallmarks of mucormycosis in human infection (Chkhotua et al., 2001). We found tissue necrosis and vessel congestion were present in tissue sections from infected fish. Moreover, Wang et al. (2005) and Yang et al. (2006) previously reported Mucor mycelium could invade blood vessels and cause embolism in humans and fish, respectively. From the immersion infection and analysis of the human literature (Henderson et al., 2001; Lenane JQ1 chemical structure et al., 2003; Brown, 2005), we speculated that infection of healthy fish with M. circinelloides would be difficult. Results suggest that M. circinelloides may first attach to the surface LY294002 nmr of healthy fish and upon injury or stress invade the hypodermis. Broad hyphae or spores can penetrate the mucous membrane to invade ground substance and cause focal necrosis. Fungal incursions into the vessels result in circulatory disturbance and infarction. According to Yang et al. (2006), these

acidic necrotic tissues accelerate the Mucor infection. The infected fish may perhaps have consequently died from dyspnea. New studies are expected to further the understanding of the pathogenic mechanism of mucormycosis in fish. This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program (also called 973 Program) under Grant 2009 CB118700, National Key Technology R&D Program under Grant 2007BAD37B03 and Research Program of Institute of Hydrobiology, 17-DMAG (Alvespimycin) HCl Chinese Academy of Sciences under Grant 095A03. “
“Initial ecosystems are characterized by a low availability of nutrients and a low soil organic matter content. Interactions of plants and microorganisms in such environments, particularly in relation to litter decomposition,

are very important for further ecosystem development. In a litter decomposition study using an initial substrate from a former mining area, we applied the litter of two contrasting pioneer plant species (legume vs. pasture plants), Lotus corniculatus and Calamagrostis epigejos, which are commonly observed in the study area. Litter decomposition was investigated and carbon (C) translocation from litter into soil microorganisms was described by following 13C from labelled plant litter materials into the fraction of phospholipid fatty acids. Labile C compounds of both plant litter types were easily degraded during the first 4 weeks of litter decomposition. In contrast to climax ecosystems, where the importance of fungi for litter degradation has been shown in many studies, in our experiment, data clearly indicate an outcompetition of fungi by Gram-positive bacteria as soon as available nitrogen is limited in the detritusphere. During the development of soil ecosystems, both above- and belowground biodiversity is changing and determines the structures and processes related to pedogenesis (Schaaf et al., 2011).