Sensory perception in fungal pathogens: Applications of the split-ubiquitin Membrane Yeast Two-Hybrid (MYTH) technique
Publication date: December 2011 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews, Volume 25, Issue 4 Author(s): Margherita Bertuzzi , Elaine M. Bignell Being sessile organisms, fungi must mount rapid responses to extracellular stimuli in order to avoid cell damage and death. Such versatility assumes particular significance in pathogenic organisms, where expression of virulence determinants is often directly linked to the activity of environmentally responsive transcriptional regulators. However, the molecular linkages between sensory events and intracellular signal transduction cascades are still poorly understood. Membrane proteins pl...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - October 13, 2014 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Three reasons to re-evaluate fungal diversity ‘on Earth and in the ocean’
Publication date: December 2011 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews, Volume 25, Issue 4 Author(s): David Bass , Thomas A. Richards Attempts to assess fungal global species richness are confounded by several problems: uncertainty about the number of described species, incomplete fungal inventories even at a high taxonomic level, high diversity of unknown, often small and elusive taxa, high levels of morphological conservation, and incomplete knowledge of their ecological and biogeographical distributions. The two main bases for estimating total fungal diversity are (1) the number of described species and their taxonomic str...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - October 13, 2014 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Mycorrhizal networks: Mechanisms, ecology and modelling
Publication date: April 2012 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews, Volume 26, Issue 1 Author(s): Suzanne W. Simard , Kevin J. Beiler , Marcus A. Bingham , Julie R. Deslippe , Leanne J. Philip , François P. Teste Mycorrhizal networks, defined as a common mycorrhizal mycelium linking the roots of at least two plants, occur in all major terrestrial ecosystems. This review discusses the recent progress and challenges in our understanding of the characteristics, functions, ecology and models of mycorrhizal networks, with the goal of encouraging future research to improve our understanding of their ecology, adaptability and ...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - October 13, 2014 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Modelling hyphal networks
Publication date: April 2012 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews, Volume 26, Issue 1 Author(s): Graeme P. Boswell , Fordyce A. Davidson The indeterminate growth habit of fungal mycelial can produce massive organisms spanning kilometres, whereas the hypha, the modular building block of these structures, is only a few microns in diameter. The qualitative and quantitative relationship between these scales is difficult to establish using experimental methods alone and a large number of mathematical models have been constructed to assist in the investigation of the multi-scale form and function of filamentous fungi. Many such...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - October 13, 2014 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Analysis of fungal networks
Publication date: April 2012 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews, Volume 26, Issue 1 Author(s): Luke Heaton , Boguslaw Obara , Vincente Grau , Nick Jones , Toshiyuki Nakagaki , Lynne Boddy , Mark D. Fricker Mycelial fungi grow as indeterminate adaptive networks that have to forage for scarce resources in a patchy and unpredictable environment under constant onslaught from mycophagous animals. Development of contrast-independent network extraction algorithms has dramatically improved our ability to characterise these dynamic macroscopic networks and promises to bridge the gap between experiments in realistic experiment...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - October 13, 2014 Category: Biology Source Type: research
The mechanistic basis of self-fusion between conidial anastomosis tubes during fungal colony initiation
Publication date: April 2012 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews, Volume 26, Issue 1 Author(s): Nick D. Read , Andrew B. Goryachev , Alexander Lichius The main model for studying the mechanistic basis of hyphal self-fusion is the conidial anastomosis tube (CAT) system of Neurospora crassa. CATs are specialized cell protrusions/short hyphae produced during colony initiation. They grow chemotropically towards each other and fuse to form interconnected networks of conidial germlings. CAT fusion in N. crassa is an excellent model for hyphal fusion because it is easy to analyse by live-cell imaging and is well suited for mutan...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - October 13, 2014 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Cryophilic fungi to denote fungi in the cryosphere
Publication date: October 2012 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews, Volume 26, Issues 2–3 Author(s): Tamotsu Hoshino , Naoyuki Matsumoto Fungi are widely distributed in the cryosphere where the habitat is constantly or seasonally covered with snow and/or ice. Fungi normally have different cells in their life cycle; fungal thermal dependence varies according to their life cycle stages and is completely different from that of bacteria. Examples are illustrated to show that the concept of psychrophile by Morita (1975) does not apply to fungi, and we propose a new term “cryophilic fungi” for those that spend a certain li...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - October 13, 2014 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Are there edge effects on forest fungi and if so do they matter?
Publication date: October 2012 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews, Volume 26, Issues 2–3 Author(s): Martha E. Crockatt Fungi are vital within forest ecosystems through their mycorrhizal relationships with trees, and as the main agents of wood decomposition and thus carbon and nutrient cycling. Globally, forests are becoming increasingly fragmented, creating forest patches that are isolated, reduced in area, and exposed at edges. Edges are often ecologically distinct from the forest interior due to their exposure to the matrix habitat. This exposure can result in altered microclimatic conditions and flows of biotic and ab...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - October 13, 2014 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Evolutionary origin, worldwide dispersal, and population genetics of the dry rot fungus Serpula lacrymans
Publication date: October 2012 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews, Volume 26, Issues 2–3 Author(s): Håvard Kauserud , Henning Knudsen , Nils Högberg , Inger Skrede Recent research on the evolution, phylogeography and population genetics of the dry rot fungus Serpula lacrymans is reviewed. The fungus causes severe damage to construction wood in temperate regions worldwide. Multi-locus genetic analyses have shown that S. lacrymans includes two cryptic species currently referred to as var. shastensis and var. lacrymans. Both lineages occur naturally in high altitude regions, but var. lacrymans has also spread from its ...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - October 13, 2014 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Fungal volatile organic compounds: A review with emphasis on their biotechnological potential
Publication date: October 2012 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews, Volume 26, Issues 2–3 Author(s): Shannon U. Morath , Richard Hung , Joan W. Bennett Fungi produce various mixtures of gas-phase, carbon-based compounds called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that due to their small size are able to diffuse through the atmosphere and soils. Despite some methodological and technological constraints, researchers have detected and characterized approximately 250 fungal VOCs, many of which have characteristic odors and are produced during primary and secondary metabolism. Fungal VOCs may contribute to a controversial medic...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - October 13, 2014 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Aimless mutants of Cryptococcus neoformans: Failure to disseminate
Publication date: October 2012 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews, Volume 26, Issues 2–3 Author(s): E.J. Griffiths , M. Kretschmer , J.W. Kronstad The pathogenic fungus Cryptococcus neoformans exhibits a striking propensity to cause central nervous system (CNS) disease in people with HIV/AIDS. Given that cryptococcal infections are generally initiated by pulmonary colonization, dissemination requires that the fungus withstand phagocytic killing, cross the alveolar–capillary interface in the lung, survive in the circulatory system and breach the blood–brain barrier. We know little about the molecular mechanisms unde...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - October 13, 2014 Category: Biology Source Type: research
The virally encoded killer proteins from Ustilago maydis
Publication date: January 2013 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews, Volume 26, Issue 4 Author(s): Aron Allen , Emir Islamovic , Jagdeep Kaur , Scott Gold , Dilip Shah , Thomas J. Smith Several strains of Ustilago maydis, a causal agent of corn smut disease, exhibit a ‘killer’ phenotype that is due to persistent infection by double-stranded RNA Totiviruses. These viruses produce potent killer proteins that are secreted by the host. This is a rare example of virus/host symbiosis in that these viruses are dependent upon host survival and, to that end, produce antifungal proteins that kill competing, uninfected strains...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - October 13, 2014 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Commercialization of antifungal peptides
Publication date: January 2013 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews, Volume 26, Issue 4 Author(s): Vanessa M.S. Duncan , Deborah A. O'Neil There remains an urgent and very much unmet medical need for new antifungal therapies. Ideally, the next generation of treatments for nosocomial and community-acquired infections, including those caused by Candida spp, Aspergillus spp, Cryptococcus spp and Fusarium spp, will be more efficacious, with higher therapeutic indices and broader activity spectra than existing antifungal drug classes. Moreover, future antifungal therapeutics should have novel modes of action/drug targets that at...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - October 13, 2014 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Understanding the mechanism of action of cell-penetrating antifungal peptides using the rationally designed hexapeptide PAF26 as a model
Publication date: January 2013 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews, Volume 26, Issue 4 Author(s): Alberto Muñoz , Mónica Gandía , Eleonora Harries , Lourdes Carmona , Nick D. Read , Jose F. Marcos Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are being actively explored as novel pharmaceuticals, plant protection agents or food preservatives. A decade ago, the cationic peptide PAF26 was identified from a library of hexapeptides using combinatorial chemistry. It was selected as a promising antifungal AMP because of its potency and specificity to inhibit the growth of filamentous fungi. In recent years, different experimental approach...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - October 13, 2014 Category: Biology Source Type: research
Antifungal proteins: More than antimicrobials?
Publication date: January 2013 Source:Fungal Biology Reviews, Volume 26, Issue 4 Author(s): Nikoletta Hegedüs , Florentine Marx Antimicrobial proteins (AMPs) are widely distributed in nature. In higher eukaryotes, AMPs provide the host with an important defence mechanism against invading pathogens. AMPs of lower eukaryotes and prokaryotes may support successful competition for nutrients with other microorganisms of the same ecological niche. AMPs show a vast variety in structure, function, antimicrobial spectrum and mechanism of action. Most interestingly, there is growing evidence that AMPs also fulfil important bi...
Source: Fungal Biology Reviews - October 13, 2014 Category: Biology Source Type: research
