Fungal physiology articles from across Nature Portfolio

The authors uncover the molecular mechanisms through which the arginine methyltransferase PRMT5 regulates the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in the fungus Ganoderma lucidum.

Pipercevic et al resolve how inositol molecules activate the VTC protein complex. The VTC complex stores phosphate in yeast and is controlled by SPX domains. The inositol molecules break an interaction between SPX domains to activate the complex.

Multicellular fungi have septal pores that allow cytoplasmic exchange between adjacent cells; cell wounding and other stress conditions induce septal pore closure. Here, Mamun et al. determine the subcellular localization of hundreds of uncharacterized proteins in a multicellular fungus, identifying 62 proteins associated with the septum. Of these, 23 proteins are involved in septal pore plugging upon hyphal wounding.

This study reports that mycobiota-derived metabolites can feed pathogenic Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium and promote its competitive advantage, thus revealing a role of the fungal community during bacterial infection.

A recent study characterizes an inducible morphotype of Cryptococcus neoformans that is critical for extrapulmonary organ entry.

This study shows that the composition of the fungal cell wall is highly heterogeneous and leads to heterogeneous antifungal susceptibility.