User talk:Zhuocao/sandbox

Hi, I have a few suggestions for your fungi article. I hope it is helpful, but feel free to not include them if you think they aren't necessary.

Growth & Morphology:

Instead of describing the odour as Streptomyces-like, you could write down that it has an earthy/soil-like smell
What about the detail of nuclear division or mitosis in B. ranarum?
If the maximum growth temperature is 30C, when in the intestine of animals, does it not grow and only reproduce? (but that also doesn't make sense because growth is needed for reproduction)

Pathology

Are there any known signs and symptoms of Basidiobolomycosis? As well as mechanisms through which soft tissue is affected?
You entered Radjou's 2011 paper twice (reference #1 and #2)
In Radjou's case study paper, it mentioned that commonly, the patients with the infection have it in the limbs, and with hard non-ulcerating lesions in the subcutaneous tissue (and that there was at most mild pain associated with it). There is also the characteristic but may be absent "radiating intensely eosinophilic granular material surrounding fungal elements" as the immune response that might be important in detecting the infection?

Feliciape (talk) 23:34, 27 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Peer Review by Stefaniemogen

Hi Zhuocao,

I read the points in your Sandbox, and I think you're off to a good start!

For your introduction, when you say that Basidiobolus ranarum was also known as Basidiobolus. heterosporus meristosporus, Basidiobolus. haptosporus, or Basidiobolus. meristosporus, did you mean that those are synonyms? Because if so, then you can place them in the sidebar under Binomial Names (you can see how to do that by looking at other students' Sandbox pages). You should also include the fact that it is a pathological agent in humans in the same sentence as when you talk about B. ranarum having a mutualistic association with animals and can live on decaying fruits.

History section: Small correction on your typo of "animals" in the 4th point. Also, can you elaborate a bit about the cases where B. ranarum has been identified in these animals and plants? Were they found to be harming or helping these organisms?

Nomenclature: Now I understand that the names I was confused about earlier are synonyms of B. ranarum so you should remove the nomenclature section and instead put these names in the sidebar.

Growth and morphology: Another small correction on your typo of "colonies" in the first point under "Colonial appearance". I noticed you added a wiki link for the word "streptomyces", which is good - I would recommend adding some more wiki links for words like "glabrous", "hyphae", "septa", etc. to help readers who may not be fully educated on fungal terminology. Under 'microscopic appearance', I don't understand what you mean by "younger ones" and "older ones" - you should clarify what you intended to communicate with these points. Under 'growth', I don't understand what you mean by the first point - what did you want to mention about mitosis in B. ranarum? Another small point - you only have to mention your fungus by its full genus and species name the first time you mention it; any subsequent mentions should just be B. ranarum. Small correction on grammar - you should correct "the affect of light" to "the effect of light", and don't forget to italicize B. ranarum! For this section, I feel like you should include whether B. ranarum produces sexual spores, or just conidia, and to be more specific as to what light conditions will increase/reduce amount of conidial discharge from the hyphae.

Habitat and ecology: It is interesting that you note that B. ranarum live in tropical regions, while their maximum growth temperature is 30 degrees, because aren't tropical regions usually well over that range? You should find out how B. ranarum are able to survive in hotter areas. You should also add the ecological role that B. ranarum plays, like whether it's a biotroph (facultative/obligate) or saprotroph, although based on your description I believe B. ranarum is a facultative biotroph. In this section I would also like to see more information about its mutualism with animals in their intestine - what roles do each play and what nutrients do they exchange with each other? In class we discussed mutualisms of fungi and plants, but not of fungi and animals, so this would be interesting to find out more about!

Pathology: I will start off with some spelling corrections - "disease" in the first sentence, "prevalent" in the second bullet point, "diagnosed" in the sixth bullet point. You have a really good general understanding of what the disease does, but you should add how exactly a person is infected by B. ranarum, is it from a prick from a plant thorn infected with B. ranarum? Or can a person accidentally ingest a fruit or plant infected with the fungus and get sick? Also, what effects does it have on health? You mentioned it causes hepatic masses, but what downstream effects does it have, like will it lead to liver cancer, death? Why are children more susceptible to this disease - do they do certain activities that increase their exposure to the fungus? Since it's difficult to diagnose, is this disease often mistaken for another disease? In the cases when it is diagnosed, what tests are done to confirm the presence of B. ranarum? Lastly, I would recommend you list specific anti fungal therapy drug names that are used to treat gastrointestinal basidiobolomycosis, and if you can find how effective they are at treating the disease, it would be beneficial to your article.

References section: I noticed that you used the autocite method of in-line citation instead of the reference template given by Dr. Scott on the course wiki page. Dr. Scott says he would like us to cite our references using the template, so I suggest that you do that.

Overall, you have good key points that will allow you to elaborate further using the comments I gave you - good luck!

Stefaniemogen (talk) 03:12, 28 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Peer Review

Hi Zhucao,

Here are some suggestions I have after reading your assignment:

Introduction:

You listed various synonyms for your fungus Basidiobolus ranarum, (Basidiobolus heterosporus meristosporus, Basidiobolus haptosporus, or Basidiobolus meristosporus) you can add this to your taxobox shown on the top right by using the following code (which can be found in the Week 4 description, under Timeline), and filling in the necessary information

| synonyms = *First_synonym authority_name (date)

Second_synonym authority_name (date)
Third_synonym authority_name (date)

}}

Also regarding the synonyms you listed, it is not necessary to have a period after the genus name
In your introduction sentence, you mentioned B. ranarum is found in animals and fruits, then you went on to talk about the regions it can be found in, and then finally went back to saying it can also be found in humans. For your final draft, perhaps this introduction would have a better flow if you reworded it. For example, moving the last sentence regarding "pathological agent in human beings" in front of the regions where the fungus can be found

History

For your first point where you mention B. ranarum being first isolated in frogs/lizards, it may be of importance or significance to name the person(s) who discovered this* It may be an option to expand more on the various reported cases of B. ranarum, for example how they discovered it, what methods they used, etc.

Nomenclature

It is not necessary to italicize the researcher/author that you listed

Growth and morphology

If possible, perhaps going more into detail regarding the appearance. For example, you mentioned the hyphae being wide, it could be helpful to provide a range of how wide it actually is
Odor: Is it explained by the fungus has a Streptomyces-like odor? Does it emit something that is found in Streptomyces?
Growth: your first point is a little confusing. I am not quite sure what it is you are trying to say about nuclear division
Light on morphology: you mentioned light affects the amount of conidia generated, perhaps you can expand on this by saying if increased light increases or decreases the generation of conidia
In general, perhaps avoid using numbers as bullet points - especially under the growth subheading because it can be confused as steps in the growth stage, whereas your actual intention (I believe), is just listing various facts regarding its growth

Habitat and ecology

You seem to be missing a citation for your second point (regarding subtropical regions). Also you can list specific countries that it can be found in (although you already did it in the introduction so it may not be necessary, it is up to you)

Pathology

Instead of writing out the full name of the fungus, you can write it as B. ranarum since you have already mentioned the full name before
Perhaps to expand on the disease you can mention specific case studies in which B, ranarum has caused basidiobolomycosis

Overall, good work so far. You seemed to have used your references multiple times throughout your assignment, and your reference list is nicely formatted. I hope my suggestions can helpful to you. Good luck!! Em.elle (talk) 02:49, 29 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]