Urmila Makhija

Inhibitory activity of xanthine oxidase and superoxide-scavenging activity in some taxa of the lichen family Graphidaceae

Results on the screening of species of the lichen family Graphidaceae for superoxide-scavenging activity (SSA) and xanthine-oxidase inhibitory (IXO) activity have been presented. The potential of the extracts for scavenging of superoxide and inhibition of xanthine-oxidase under various physiological conditions has been evaluated. The methanolic extracts of the species of family Graphidaceae showed inhibitory properties of xanthine oxidase (IC50 = 2.0 to 5.26 microg/ml) with an additional superoxide scavenging capacity (IC50 = 3.63 to 13.88 microg/ml). The potential of the methanolic extracts for scavenging of superoxide and inhibition of xanthine oxidase remained stable at 4 degrees C. Thus the extracts can be maintained for longer periods for their therapeutic uses.

Trans-septate species of Acanthothecis and Fissurina from India

Eighteen species in the lichen genera Acanthothecis Clem. and Fissurina Fee (Graphidaceae) with colourless, trans-septate ascospores are recorded from India. Eight new species, namely Acanthothecis collateralis, Fissurina capsulata, F. coarctata, F. karnatakensis, F. khasiana, F. longiramea, F. taeniocarpoides and F. verrucosa, and a new variety, F. dumastioides var. salazinica, are described. Fissurina saxicola ad int., clearly distinguished from the other species is recorded, but is not formally described as new to science as the material is scanty. Acanthothecis consocians, F. globulifica, F. insidiosa and F. rugosa are reported for the first time from India. A key for the trans-septate species of Acanthothecis and Fissurina in India is provided.

Tyrosinase-inhibitory activity in some species of the lichen family Graphidaceae.

Twenty-five species of the lichen family Graphidaceae have been investigated for tyrosinaseinhibitory activity. Tyrosinase-inhibiting material was extracted with solvents methanol, acetone, ethanol, dimethyl sulphoxide in water, and with water only. Methanol has been found to be suitable for extracting adequate amounts of tyrosinaseinhibiting component from the natural thallus. The lichen species such as Graphina glaucorufa, Graphina multistriata, Graphina salacinilabiata, Graphis assamensis, Graphis nakanishiana, and Phaeographopsis indica, have shown inhibition of tyrosinase over a range of 30-78%. Half-inhibiting concentration (IC50, J.g/ml) has been found to be much lower than the standard tyrosinase inhibitors and thus can compete with other commercially available tyrosinase inhibitors. The extracts of these species have been found to be stable at 4°C.

A new isidiate species of Graphis from India

A new isidiate species in the genus Graphis Adans. ( sensu Staiger 2002), Graphis isidiza ( Graphidaceae , ascomycetes) is described from the Western Ghats of India.

Occurrence of four additional non-hairy species of Leptogium from Maharashtra, India

In the present paper four etomentose species of Leptogium are recorded from Maharashtra, western India. Three species, viz. Leptogium patwardhanii Dube & Makhija sp. nov. , Leptogium subazureum Dube & Makhija sp. nov., and Leptogium verrucosum Dube & Makhija sp. nov., are described as new to science and one species, Leptogium propaguliferum Vain., is recorded for the first time from India. A revised key to the non-hairy species of Leptogium from India is provided.

Two species of Carbacanthographis from India

Two species of the lichen genus Carbacanthographis , namely C. marcescens and a new species, C. sorediata , are reported from India. The new species is characterized by a sorediate thallus, laterally carbonized exciple, submuriform ascospores, and salazinic and consalazinic acids in the thallus. A worldwide key to the species of Carbacanthographis is provided.

A new species of the lichen genus Phlyctis from Maharashtra, India

A new species, Phlyctis communis, characterized by 8-spored asci, 7–14(–16) transversely septate ascospores, and salazinic and norstictic acids, is described from India. Key words—Ascomycetes, Ostropales, taxonomy Introduction Although taxonomic accounts of several lichen genera from Maharashtra have been published and many species have been described (Chitale et al. 2008, 2009, 2011, Chitale & Makhija 2008, Dube et al. 2005, Dube & Makhija 2008, 2010), one locally common and abundant interesting species has remained unpublished. For several years a conspicuously grayish-white unidentified crustose lichen was known to occur all over Maharashtra, mostly during the monsoons in the humid high altitude regions. This has now been identified and is described as a new species of the genus Phlyctis. The subtropical to temperate lichen genus Phlyctis (Wallr.) Flot., confirmed by phylogenetic sequence analysis as belonging in the Ostropales (Miadlikowska et al. 2006), is characterized by a smooth to verrucose crustose thallus, protococcoid green algal photobiont, sunken or erumpent, round apothecioid ascomata with indistinct thalline margins, proper exciple present or absent, unbranched or apically furcate paraphyses, 1–8-spored asci, and ascospores that are colourless, transversely septate to multicelled-muriform, thin walled, elongate-ellipsoid, and non-halonate. Phlyctis species generally contain one or several of the following depsidone acids: stictic, constictic, norstictic, connorstictic, hypostictic, salazinic psoromic, neopsoromic and/or protocetraric acids (Galloway & Guzmán 1988). The genus is widely distributed, with 12 species listed by Kirk et al. (2008) and five others from Great Britain and Ireland (Benfield et al. 2009), China (Ma 76 ... Chitale & Makhija et al. 2010), India (Joshi et al. 2010), and Australia (Lumbsch et al. 2011) added since 2008. Of these only five — Phlyctis himalayensis (Nyl.) D.D. Awasthi, P. nepalensis Räsänen, P. polyphora Stirt., P. karnatakana S. Joshi & Upreti, and P. subagelaea S. Joshi & Upreti — have been reported from the Indian subcontinent (Awasthi 2000, Joshi et al. 2010). In the present study, one new species has been discovered from Maharashtra that represents the first record of Phlyctis from this area. Materials & methods The specimens were examined using a stereomicroscope and a light microscope. Sections of the thalli and apothecia were stained with Lugol’s iodine solution. All sections examined were mounted in LPCB (lactophenol with cotton blue). TLC protocols followed Culberson & Kristinsson (1970) and White & James (1985). All specimens were observed under UV light (365 nm). The present study is based on the material preserved in the lichen herbarium of Ajarekar Mycological Herbarium (AMH) and recent collections by the authors from Maharashtra state.

A new species of Anomomorpha ( Graphidaceae ) from India

Anomomorpha elegans , a new species characterized by lirelline ascocarps, dark reddish brown, pruinose disc, bowl shaped exciple composed of elongate hyphae, hymenium inspersed with crystals, muriform ascospores and salazinic acid in the thallus, is described from India.

Protoplast isolation from cultured lichen Usnea ghattensis, their fusion with protoplasts of Aspergillus nidulans, fusant regeneration and production of usnic acid

Protoplasts isolated from the mycobiont of a cultured lichen Usnea ghattensis were fused with protoplasts of the fungus Aspergillus nidulans in order to increase the growth rate of the cultured lichen mycobiont in vitro. The maximum protoplast yield (102 × 104/g fresh cell mass) was reached in citrate buffer with 50 mmol/L 2-sulfanylethanol (‘2-mercaptoethanol’) containing 0.1 % Novozym after 1.5 h at pH 5 and ≤25 °C. The increase in the concentration of the above effectors or the addition of others (e.g., MgSO4) as well as increase in time, shaking frequency, etc. caused the lower yield of protoplasts. The fused protoplasts were regenerated after transfer to malt extract-yeast extract medium and produced, after a 45-d cultivation, a fresh cell mass of 0.232 g (from starting 0.3 g) along with the lichen substance usnic acid.