Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
mBio. 2020 Oct 6;11(5):e01020-20. doi: 10.1128/mBio.01020-20.
The landscape of infectious fungal agents includes previously unidentified or rare pathogens with the potential to cause unprecedented casualties in biodiversity, food security, and human health. The influences of human activity, including the crisis of climate change, along with globalized transport, are underlying factors shaping fungal adaptation to increased temperature and expanded geographical regions. Furthermore, the emergence of novel antifungal-resistant strains linked to excessive use of antifungals (in the clinic) and fungicides (in the field) offers an additional challenge to protect major crop staples and control dangerous fungal outbreaks. Hence, the alarming frequency of fungal infections in medical and agricultural settings requires effective research to understand the virulent nature of fungal pathogens and improve the outcome of infection in susceptible hosts. Mycology-driven research has benefited from a contemporary and unified approach of omics technology, deepening the biological, biochemical, and biophysical understanding of these emerging fungal pathogens. Here, we review the current state-of-the-art multi-omics technologies, explore the power of data integration strategies, and highlight discovery-based revelations of globally important and taxonomically diverse fungal pathogens. This information provides new insight for emerging pathogens through an in-depth understanding of well-characterized fungi and provides alternative therapeutic strategies defined through novel findings of virulence, adaptation, and resistance.
传染病原体的范围包括以前未被识别或罕见的病原体，它们有可能在生物多样性、粮食安全和人类健康方面造成前所未有的人员伤亡。人类活动的影响，包括气候变化危机，以及全球化的交通，是塑造真菌适应温度升高和地理区域扩大的潜在因素。此外，与抗真菌药物（临床应用）和杀真菌剂（田间应用）过度使用相关的新型抗真菌耐药菌株的出现，对保护主要农作物和控制危险真菌爆发提出了另一个挑战。因此，医学和农业环境中真菌感染的惊人频率需要有效的研究来了解真菌病原体的毒力性质，并改善易感宿主的感染结果。真菌学驱动的研究受益于当代统一的组学技术方法，加深了对这些新兴真菌病原体的生物学、生物化学和生物物理的理解。在这里，我们回顾了当前最先进的多组学技术，探讨了数据集成策略的力量，并强调了具有全球重要性和分类多样性的真菌病原体的基于发现的揭示。这些信息通过深入了解特征良好的真菌，为新兴病原体提供了新的见解，并通过对毒力、适应性和耐药性的新发现，提供了替代的治疗策略。
