SAFS responds to oral antifungal therapy as judged by large improvements in quality of life in about 60% of patients.

SUMMARYClostridium acetobutylicum has been studied during batch cultivation at pH 7 and 35" in a glucose+casein hydrolysate+vitamins and salts medium kept (i) anaerobic (&, -400 to -370 mV), (ii) aerated (&, -50 to o mV; dissolved O,, < I PM), and (iii) aerobic (Eh, + 100 mV; dissolved 02, 40 to 50 PM). Shortterm (4 to 6 h.) exposure to oxygen was not lethal, though at sufficiently high concentrations oxygen decreased the rate of glucose consumption, halted growth and prevented net synthesis of DNA, RNA and protein. Under these aerobic conditions the organism was drained of 'reducing power' and starved of energy -as evidenced by cessation of butyrate formation (but not of acetate production), and by a marked fall in intracellular ATP. These consequences of oxygenation were swiftly reversed when anaerobic conditions were re-established ; 'normal' growth and glucose metabolism then resumed. There was no evidence of H,O, production, nor could the effects of oxygenation be attributed merely to its elevation of the culture E h . Thus oxygen (40 ,UM) inhibited growth even in a medium poised with dithiothreitol at -50 mV, while growth and glucose metabolism continued unchecked when the Eh of an anaerobic culture was maintained at +370 mV by addition of potassium ferricyanide.

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SummaryThe spo0A genes of Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 and Clostridium cellulolyticum ATCC 35319 were isolated and characterized. The C-terminal DNA-binding domains of the predicted products of spo0A from these two organisms, as well as 16 other taxonomically diverse species of Bacillus and Clostridium, show extensive amino acid sequence conservation (56% identity, 65% similarity over 104 residues). A 12-amino-acid motif (SRVERAIRHAIE) that forms the putative DNA recognition helix is particularly highly conserved, suggesting a common DNA target.