columnare at 5 min postexposure to the mucus. However, when F. columnare cells were pretreated with 50 mM d-mannose, the catfish skin mucus failed to induce the upregulation of gldH, suggesting that gldH might play an important role in the chemotactic

response of F. columnare to catfish skin mucus and that pretreatment of F. columnare with d-mannose might be able to block the chemotactic response of F. columnare to catfish. Whether pretreatment of F. columnare with d-mannose will affect the virulence of F. columnare to catfish merits further study. In summary, using a different pretreatment of F. columnare cells and an in vitro chemotaxis assay, we found find more that at least two major components were involved in the chemotactic responses of F. columnare

to catfish skin mucus. Firstly, the capsule of F. columnare plays an important role in recognizing the extracellular chemoattractants from the catfish mucus through lectin-like receptors. Secondly, one or more gliding motility proteins are involved in the chemotactic response of F. columnare to catfish skin mucus. These components might play important roles in the cell-to-cell communication necessary for gliding the chemotaxis of F. columnare toward catfish skin mucus. However, the exact roles of F. columnare gliding motility proteins in chemotaxis and the identities of the lectin-like receptors on the capsule of F. columnare receptors and the chemoattractants of the catfish skin mucus remain to be further studied. We thank Drs Benjamin LaFrentz (USDA-ARS) and Victor Panangala (USDA collaborator) for critical reviews of the manuscript. MS-275 chemical structure We thank Beth Peterman and Stacey LaFrentz (USDA-ARS) for their excellent technical support. We also thank the management team of the Aquatic Animal Health Research Unit for daily care and management of the fish. This study these was supported by the USDA/ARS CRIS project #6420-32000-024-00D. The use of trade, firm or corporate names in this publication is for the information and convenience of the reader. Such use does

not constitute an official endorsement or approval by the United States Department of Agriculture or the Agricultural Research Service of any product or service to the exclusion of others that may be suitable. “
“National Institute of Vegetable and Tea Science, Mie, Japan University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan Fusarium oxysporum produces three kinds of asexual spores: microconidia, macroconidia and chlamydospores. We previously analysed expressed sequence tags during vegetative growth and conidiation in F. oxysporum and found 42 genes that were markedly upregulated during conidiation compared to vegetative growth. One of the genes, FVS1, encodes a protein with a sterile alpha motif (SAM) domain, which functions in protein–protein interactions that are involved in transcriptional or post-transcriptional regulation and signal transduction.