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Fungal genetics is the study of the mechanisms of heritable information in fungi. Yeasts and filamentous fungi are extensively used as model organisms for eukaryotic genetic research, including cell cycle regulation, chromatin structure, genetic recombination and gene regulation.
Antifungal triazoles inhibit biosynthesis of ergosterol, a crucial component of the fungal plasma membrane. Here, Xie et al. show that Erg6, the enzyme that catalyzes a previous step in ergosterol biosynthesis, is essential for the viability of Aspergillus fumigatus, and its repression reduces the virulence of this fungal pathogen in an animal model of infection.
A-to-I editing in animals is catalyzed by enzymes of the Adenosine Deaminase Acting on RNA family, orthologues of which do not exist in fungi. Here, Feng et al. characterise the enzymes involved in A-to-I mRNA editing in Fusarium graminearum.
Echinocandins are antifungal drugs that inhibit hyphal growth and induce lysis of hyphal tip compartments in pathogenic Aspergillus species. Here, Calise et al. show that echinocandins induce production of a fungal oxylipin signal, thus triggering hyphal growth changes that reduce hyphal tip lysis and confer echinocandin tolerance.
Nematode signals such as ascarosides are sensed by G protein-coupled receptors of a nematode-trapping fungus, resulting in fungal activation of cAMP–PKA signalling and trap development.
In this Journal Club, Amelia Barber discusses a study revealing intraspecies heterogeneity in a fungal pathogen, prompting us to re-evaluate the notion of ‘reference’ strains.
Identification and analysis of mutator strains in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans show that natural loss of RNA interference triggers massive accumulation of Cnl1 retroelements at subtelomeric regions.
Computational analysis of fungal genomes revealed that some early-branching fungi use selenocysteine, the selenium-containing amino acid, that was thought to be missing from proteins in this lineage.