Fungal pathogenesis articles from across Nature Portfolio

Invasive candidiasis is a fungal disease caused by Candida pathogens. In this Primer, Lass-Flörl et al. summarize current knowledge of epidemiology and mechanisms and discuss the diagnosis, treatment and quality of life of patients with invasive candidiasis. They also highlight outstanding research questions.

A laccase was found to act as a key component of environmental sensing in the fungal plant pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. This study demonstrates the role that this laccase plays in fungal cell wall architecture and virulence on plant tissue.

Bing et al. report that Candida auris undergoes rapid evolution via de novo genetic mutations and forms multicellular aggregates that exhibit a survival advantage over the single-celled yeast-form phenotype during host infection.

Candidalysin is a toxin secreted by Candida albicans. Although critical for pathogenesis, its intracellular targets are not well mapped. Here, Zhang et al screen for interacting proteins and identify that candidalysin can modulate the DNA damage repair pathway to promote fungal infection.

This study shows that hyphae formation is critical for Candida albicans gut colonization in the presence of commensal bacteria owing to the production of a hyphal-associated factor.

In this study, Liu et al. explore the interplay between a fungal effector and a plant cysteine protease and design a small-molecule compound aimed at targeting this effector to combat rice blast disease.

Increased heat tolerance in fungi with pathogenic potential due to global warming could bring new fungal diseases.

This study reports the identification of the novel Candida auris-specific adhesin Scf1, which, together with the adhesin Iff4109, is a key mediator of surface association, infection and long-term colonization.

The rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae uses transfer RNA modifications to fine-tune effector protein secretion into host plant cells.

This study shows that healthy individuals are reservoirs for genotypically and phenotypically diverse Candida albicans strains that retain their capacity to cause disease.