Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Bronx, New York, USA.
mBio. 2010 May 18;1(1):e00061-10. doi: 10.1128/mBio.00061-10.
Fungi are major pathogens of plants, other fungi, rotifers, insects, and amphibians, but relatively few cause disease in mammals. Fungi became important human pathogens only in the late 20th century, primarily in hosts with impaired immunity as a consequence of medical interventions or HIV infection. The relatively high resistance of mammals has been attributed to a combination of a complex immune system and endothermy. Mammals maintain high body temperatures relative to environmental temperatures, creating a thermally restrictive ambient for the majority of fungi. According to this view, protection given by endothermy requires a temperature gradient between those of mammals and the environment. We hypothesize that global warming will increase the prevalence of fungal diseases in mammals by two mechanisms: (i) increasing the geographic range of currently pathogenic species and (ii) selecting for adaptive thermotolerance for species with significant pathogenic potential but currently not pathogenic by virtue of being restricted by mammalian temperatures.
真菌是植物、其他真菌、轮虫、昆虫和两栖动物的主要病原体，但相对较少的真菌会导致哺乳动物患病。真菌在 20 世纪后期才成为重要的人类病原体，主要是在因医疗干预或 HIV 感染而导致免疫功能受损的宿主中。哺乳动物相对较高的抵抗力归因于复杂的免疫系统和温血性。哺乳动物保持相对环境温度较高的体温，为大多数真菌创造了一个热限制的环境。根据这一观点，温血性提供的保护需要哺乳动物与其环境之间存在温度梯度。我们假设，全球变暖将通过两种机制增加哺乳动物真菌感染的流行：（i）扩大目前具有致病性的物种的地理范围；（ii）选择对具有重要致病性潜力但由于受哺乳动物体温限制而目前没有致病性的物种的适应性耐热性。
