Fungi That Enraps Nematodes

[carla]

http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/pi/enpp/nema/nemacirc/nem095.pdf

[Kritters]

Amazing, huh Carls?
xoKritts

[Baraka Obam]

Carla, gives a little meaning to what we MAY be able to see !!! I wonder the size of this stuff. That picture I posted, it did looked trapped to me, now there was somthing very strange I saw in the tub, it was a worm like THING it had a shell it looked like it BUILT out of black specks and white looking specks, this strange worm had a vibrant color banded body. One thing I do not know where it came from but I imagine the upper vent cover, I tried to get it under the microscope but it was not having any of the heat from the bulb. I then put alcohol on the slide and then there was no more bug it seemed, I could not see it or any part of it with the microscope.hmmmmm. It was funny that it built the shell out of all that debris, sort of like a fiddler crab stealing a shell. Who knows

[sarothra]

Originally Posted by Baraka Obam

Carla, gives a little meaning to what we MAY be able to see !!! I wonder the size of this stuff. That picture I posted, it did looked trapped to me, now there was somthing very strange I saw in the tub, it was a worm like THING it had a shell it looked like it BUILT out of black specks and white looking specks, this strange worm had a vibrant color banded body. One thing I do not know where it came from but I imagine the upper vent cover, I tried to get it under the microscope but it was not having any of the heat from the bulb. I then put alcohol on the slide and then there was no more bug it seemed, I could not see it or any part of it with the microscope.hmmmmm. It was funny that it built the shell out of all that debris, sort of like a fiddler crab stealing a shell. Who knows

Baraka,

Did you by chance save that thing? I found a site that DNA's marine organisms. Don't know much about it or how much it would be to send a specimen and get an ID.

How about another surgery? I want to send in the thing with the "hooks".

What if I could send you some vials of lidocaine? Probably can't do that - but I do have friends in hospital places....that have (sterile) vials of anesthetic. Actually something I've considered doing on myself..

My kingdom for some anesthesia...

I will say since I have had big M I have never hurt myself in as many ways as this thing prompts one to do. pull and SCREAM
rest
pull and SCREAM
rest

now put SALT ON IT

[juell]

Hi Ya'll,

In 2007 when I came across the the chilling pictures/diagrams of nematode killing fungus, it explained so much of what I was seeing in my microscope!! BUT.....how could it be possible?? This was only supposed to happen in the soil. The greatest likeness to what I saw was Arthrobotrys.

I bookmarked a few sites. Here are some that had illustrations or pics.

http://www.uoguelph.ca/~gbarron/MISC2003/arthrobo.htm


Scroll down on this site and look at the ACTUAL electron photos: Do I see a ring around the neck???!! (ie, necklace, like in Kammy's pics?!)

The Fifth Kingdom - pictorial supplement to Chapter 15 - Fungi exploiting microscopic animals

~ Juell

[sarothra]

Originally Posted by juell

Hi Ya'll,

In 2007 when I came across the the chilling pictures/diagrams of nematode killing fungus, it explained so much of what I was seeing in my microscope!! BUT.....how could it be possible?? This was only supposed to happen in the soil. The greatest likeness to what I saw was Arthrobotrys.

I bookmarked a few sites. Here are some that had illustrations or pics.

http://www.uoguelph.ca/~gbarron/MISC2003/arthrobo.htm


Scroll down on this site and look at the ACTUAL electron photos: Do I see a ring around the neck???!! (ie, necklace, like in Kammy's pics?!)

The Fifth Kingdom - pictorial supplement to Chapter 15 - Fungi exploiting microscopic animals

~ Juell

Juell, They are feeding these predatory fungi to cattle, horses, pigs, sheep -
they FEED IT TO THEM SO IT COMES OUT IN THEIR POOP so that the fungus can then start eating the nematodes in the poop. Of course this lays on the ground and then it rains and then it gets in the water reservoir.

You know that heterohabdus (our nematode in question) also gets dropped onto crops and lawns, golf courses, farms, by the billions! Not millions - I said billions. They can put millions of them just on a small yard. The company that does that here in Indiana is called "Child's Play" because it's supposed to be environmentally safe.

The big M is just another illustration of how we have screwed up the environment. If the farmers are feeding this to the cows, isn't it possible that this could be in the meat (AO is short for arthrobotrys oliogospora) ?

[Kritters]

Sorry, I have to again express how incredible this find is.

I'm saving the pic below for framing. I've begun a collection of microscopic art and this is really cool. What's REALLY cool is to have art with personal implications on the wall. (I know I'm strange...but oh well)

[sarothra]

Originally Posted by Kritters

Sorry, I have to again express how incredible this find is.

I'm saving the pic below for framing. I've begun a collection of microscopic art and this is really cool. What's REALLY cool is to have art with personal implications on the wall. (I know I'm strange...but oh well)

No, I thought it was beautiful too. Just who woulda thunk it? So beautiful and yet, so not OK with us....and with nematodes.

Boy, if somebody could capture those "flowers" that would be so cool. Those are the buds that form the conida, the asexual spores.

[sarothra]

I am actively seeking further information on the inhibition of the sticky traps. Many scientific studies have been done to find out what conditions are optimal for sticky trap formation. (when I say sticky trap I mean LESION - remember, the lesions are the sticky traps).

They do a lot of studies on farm animals. Insecticides are loosing their effectiveness on nematodes, so scientists came up with another bright idea (not) to feed parrafin- covered arthrobotrys fungus to cattle, for example, so that when the animal poops, the fungus will be right there to consume whatever worms are in the feces. They have to treat the fungus with some sort of covering, otherwise the fungus does not make it through the digestive system of the cow. It's rumen destroys it.

Anyway, they have found that a low nutrient background is good for sticky trap formation. The fungus senses that there is little food available so puts out traps to get it nutrition requirements.

GOOD for sticky trap formation EQUALS bad for us.

This is why people have discovered that putting honey on a lesion helps. The fungus senses there is a carbohydrate available and doesn't need to put the energy into forming traps.

Another aspect is nitrogen. Low nitrogen equals high trap formation.
I put a drop of plant fertilizer on a couple lesions, to try it. 1.6% nitrogen if you're interested. Pretty much burns. Lesion looks a little better but I've also done heat and honey. So don't know for sure which one did it.

I probably should try one treatment at a time but I'm in so much pain with this one and my whole jaw is swollen. I feel I can't afford the luxury of trying that. So I end up not knowing for sure which one helped. Oh well...

Cow dung smell INCREASES TRAP FORMATION.

I know you wanted to know that. Seriously, we could have some farmers on here. Get away from the cow dung or your skin will be a mess!

http://aem.asm.org/cgi/reprint/45/1/290.pdf

Soil Biology Movies (This is a cool movie of a nematode getting stuck in a sticky trap. Select NEM/TRAP)

[tcmgpt13]

1: Vet Parasitol. 1997 Nov;72(3-4):479-85; discussion 485-92.Click here to read Links
Biological control of gastro-intestinal nematodes--facts, future, or fiction?
Larsen M, Nansen P, Grønvold J, Wolstrup J, Henriksen SA.

Danish Centre for Experimental Parasitology, Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Frederiksberg, Denmark. mila@kvl.dk

The potential of using fungi to prevent nematodosis caused by parasites with free-living larval stages is well documented today. In this respect Duddingtonia flagrans, a net-trapping, nematode-destroying fungus, appears to be the most promising candidate. Laboratory experiments and in-vivo studies, where fungal spores have survived passage through the gastro-intestinal tract of cattle and horses, plus field studies with cattle, horses and pigs, demonstrate significant reduction in the number of infective larvae that develop in the faecal environment. In field trials this reduction subsequently leads to reduced infectivity of herbage and also reduced worm burdens in grazing animals. A status of the present situation, primarily based upon work performed in Denmark within the last 6-8 years, plus an outlook for practical implementation of an integrated control strategy including the use of nematode-destroying fungi in the future is discussed.

PMID: 9460213 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]


1: Vet Parasitol. 1993 Jun;48(1-4):311-25.

In Denmark two series of experiments have been performed to study the interactions between larvae of bovine gastrointestinal nematode parasites and nematode-trapping fungi. For practical reasons we were interested in the possibility of depositing nematode-trapping fungi in cattle faeces after passage through the gastrointestinal tract. In the first series, laboratory tests with the fungus Arthrobotrys oligospora showed that motile free-living larvae of a wide range of animal-parasitic nematodes and some soil-living nematodes effectively induce the formation of traps. Larvae of all parasitic nematodes are rapidly captured in these traps. The induction of nets was influenced by temperature, number of larvae, atmosphere, light, and media composition. Captured first- and second-stage larvae were quickly penetrated and killed while third stage larvae were killed slowly, perhaps because they are partially protected by an outer dead sheath. Laboratory and field studies showed that when A. oligospora material was directly mixed into dung a significant reduction in the number of infective parasite larvae in the dung and surrounding herbage occurs. This reduction was also reflected in the acquired worm burden of calves grazing on fungal treated pasture. However, the A. oligospora strain studied in the above mentioned experiments did not survive passage through the alimentary tract of cattle. This prompted us to start a second series of experiments to isolate fungi that could survive gut passage of cattle. Different soil and. compost samples were screened by an in vitro stress selection technique. This simulated certain important stress factors which occur during passage through the alimentary tract of ruminants. Rumen exposure was found to be a major limiting factor, but some Arthrobotrys and Duddingtonia strains survived submersion in rumen fluid. In a subsequent in vivo experiment, some of these survivors were fed to calves, and it was hereby demonstrated that isolates of both genera, i.e. Arthrobotrys and Duddingtonia, were able to survive passage through calves and significantly reduce the number of developing preparasitic larvae in dung of fungal treated calves. In a controlled field experiment, isolates of Duddingtonia reduced the level of infective third-stage larvae in herbage by 74-85%.

PMID: 8346645 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]