Abstract
LONG fine hairs, called fimbriae1, or pili2, are commonly found attached to the cell walls of Gram-negative bacteria2, but do not seem to have been reported in other organisms. We report here that the yeast-like sporidial cells of the anther smut fungus Ustilago violacea also produce fimbriae. At present the use of the term fimbriae for these fungal hairs merely denotes a close morphological and developmental similarity to the bacterial structures; however, preliminary investigations of the fungal ‘fimbriae’ indicate that there may be chemical and functional similarities too.
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POON, H., DAY, A. ‘Fimbriae’ in the fungus Ustilago violacea. Nature 250, 648–649 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1038/250648a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/250648a0
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