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Extraction of maize meal cultures of Aspergillus ustus gave six novel metabolites, designated austocystins, to which were assigned the substituted 3a, 12a-dihydrofuro[3′,2′:4,5]furo[3,2-b]xanthen-5-one structures (1), (20), (21), (23), (26), and (29). The substitution pattern of the austocystins was confirmed by the results of chemical degradation as well as by use of n.m.r. techniques such as acetylation shifts, benzene-induced solvent shifts, and nuclear Overhauser effect experiments.

A new enzyme responsible for the oxidation of d-glutamic acid was obtained from the mycelium of Aspergillus ustus strain f isolated from the soil. Many properties of this enzyme in the state of dried cell or crude extract were studied. The enzyme preparation strongly oxidizes d-glutamic and d-aspartic acids but does not affect any other dl-amino acids at all. A new micro-determination method for d-glutamic acid has been devised by means of this enzyme.

Evidence is presented which confirms the structures of the five metabolites as shown in 1–5. The absolute configuration of compounds 1 and 2 was established; for compound 5 the absolute configuration was established at position 12 only.

SUMMARY: In detailed studies of the growth of Aspergillus ustus, Penicillium oxalicum, P. frequentans and P. notatum in whey with fat production in view, the first two showed the highest lactose utilization and felt weights in shaken cultures while the last two gave as good or better felt yields in stationary cultures. When A. ustus was grown in shaken culture in whey with and without the addition of 1·14 g/1. of ammonium nitrate, the extra nitrogen led to the production of larger amounts of fat, but P. frequentans did not form additional fat in these circumstances. A. ustus was the best mould; in whey plus ammonium nitrate it utilized up to 96% of the lactose and formed, per litre of whey, about 17 g of mycelial felt containing 13% of protein and 28% of fat.

It is confirmed by a new method for the determination of d-glutamic acid, that Aerobacter strain A rapidly metabolizes d-glutamic acid, while it only shows feeble metabolic activity towards l-glutamic acid when it is grown on a dl-glutamate-K2HPO4 medium. A specific d-glutamic oxidase is demonstrated in the cell-free extracts of Aerobacter strain A. This enzyme seems to be different from d-glutamic-aspartic oxidase obtained from Aspergillus ustus by the authors, since the former has no activity towards d-aspartic acid.

Prolyl-2-(1′,1′-dimethylallyl)tryptophyldiketopiperazine and 12,13-dehydroprolyl-2-(1′,1′-dimethylallyl)tryptophyldiketopiperazine, known metabolites of Aspergillus ustus , were produced in low yield by Penicillium italicum in liquid culture and on unsterilized orange peel.

Nine genera of fungi were isolated from more than 200 insects representing eight species of corn pests. They are Beauveria, Metarrhizium, Fusarium, Aspergillus, Penicillium, Paecilomyces, Rhizopus, Scopulariopsis , and Mycoderma . The European corn borer, Ostrinia nubilalis (Hubner), was used as a test animal for pathogenicity tests with the fungus organisms. Beauveria bassiana and Metarrhizium anisopliae were the most pathogenic strains recovered. Aspergillus ustus, Fusarium neoceras, paecilomyces varioti, Penicillium decumbens, P. puberulum , and Scopulariopsis brevicaulis had not previously been reported from insects.

A MOULD, isolated by Kurung1 in 1944 and considered to be a strain of Aspergillus ustus (Bain.) Thom and Church, was shown to produce a metabolic liquor which possessed a marked antibiotic activity towards Mycobacterium tuberculosis and M. ranae. Afterwards, Hogeboom and Craig2, by application of a counter-current technique, were able to isolate, from an ethereal extract of this mould and its substrate, two crystalline products, called compound I and compound II, which showed a very high activity against M. ranae. Doering, Dubos, Noyce and Dreyfus3, using the same strain of mould, isolated a number of chlorine-containing metabolic products, one of which was proved to be identical with Hogeboom and Craig's compound I. Doering et al. proposed the name ‘ustin’ for this compound, established its empirical formula (C19H15O5Cl3) and published a superficial account of some of its chemical properties.

Aspergillus fumigatus was isolated with high frequency from samples of ornithogenic soil collected from an Adélie penguin rookery at Hallett Station, Antarctica. While A. fumigatus has been well documented as the principal incitant of aspergillosis among penguins in captivity, this represents the first report of its presence in antarctic materials. Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus ustus were also found in the Hallett samples. In a comparable number of soil and guano samples from isolated Adélie rookeries on Foyn Island and Possession Island, these fungi were not encountered. It is suggested that their presence at Hallett Station may be the result of human contamination. A brief consideration of epidemiological implications is given.

The fungal metabolite austdiol, elaborated by Aspergillus ustus, has been identified as (7R,8S)-7,8-dihydro-7,8-dihydroxy-3,7-dimethyl-6-oxo-6H-2-benzopyran-5-carbaldehyde. The absolute configuration was deduced by the ‘partial resolution’ method of Horeau.

The almost uniformly fatal outcome ofAspergillusendocarditis, most of which has occurred on prosthetic cardiac valves, has been well documented.1,2The difficulty in the diagnosis of this type of infection, the problems of therapy of prosthetic valve endocarditis, and the relative ineffectiveness of antifungal chemotherapeutic agents account for the high mortality. We describe a patient withAspergillusendocarditis on a prosthetic valve who was cured with a combination of surgery, amphotericin B therapy, and long-term therapy with flucytosine. (This patient was included in a previous report of two patients withAspergillusendocarditis,3but the details and results of therapy were not included in that report.) A review of the literature onAspergillusendocarditis is also included. Patient Summary Patient 1. —A 50-year-old black man was first admitted to the Philadelphia Veterans Administration Hospital in February 1963 because of increasing symptoms of heart failure. He had had rheumatic