Featured
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Article |
Structural and mechanistic insights into fungal β-1,3-glucan synthase FKS1
Using cryo-electron microscopy, the molecular architecture and catalytic mechanism of action of the fungal β-1,3-glucan synthase FKS1 are determined.
- Xinlin Hu
- , Ping Yang
- & Hongjun Yu
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Article |
Secreted fungal virulence effector triggers allergic inflammation via TLR4
Cryptococcus neoformans secretes CPL1 protein, which induces alternative activation of macrophages via Toll-like receptor 4 in mice and is essential for fungal virulence.
- Eric V. Dang
- , Susan Lei
- & Hiten D. Madhani
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Article
| Open Access
Intron-mediated induction of phenotypic heterogeneity
Experiments in yeast show that introns have a role in inducing phenotypic heterogeneity and that intron-mediated regulation of ribosomal proteins confers a fitness advantage by enabling yeast populations to diversify under nutrient-scarce conditions.
- Martin Lukačišin
- , Adriana Espinosa-Cantú
- & Tobias Bollenbach
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Article |
Immune regulation by fungal strain diversity in inflammatory bowel disease
Genetically diverse Candida albicans strains in patients with inflammatory bowel disease secrete a toxin and aggravate IL-1β-dependent intestinal inflammation.
- Xin V. Li
- , Irina Leonardi
- & Iliyan D. Iliev
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Article |
Adaptive immunity induces mutualism between commensal eukaryotes
Studies of mouse and human IgA responses against Candida albicans and other common fungal species show that host adaptive immunity selects for fungal effectors that promote commensalism and prevent intestinal disease.
- Kyla S. Ost
- , Teresa R. O’Meara
- & June L. Round
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Article |
Structure of the class D GPCR Ste2 dimer coupled to two G proteins
A cryo-electron microscopy structure of the yeast pheromone receptor Ste2, a class D G-protein-coupled receptor, in its active state reveals that Ste2 is a homodimer that couples to two G proteins.
- Vaithish Velazhahan
- , Ning Ma
- & Christopher G. Tate
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Article |
Galactosaminogalactan activates the inflammasome to provide host protection
Galactosaminogalactan of Aspergillus fumigatus acts as a pathogen-associated molecular pattern that activates the NLRP3 inflammasome, which is crucial for anti-fungal host defence.
- Benoit Briard
- , Thierry Fontaine
- & Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti
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Article |
Epigenetic gene silencing by heterochromatin primes fungal resistance
Fission yeast grown in sublethal levels of caffeine develop heterochromatin-dependent epimutations conferring unstable heritable gene silencing that conveys resistance to caffeine, while remaining genetically wild type.
- Sito Torres-Garcia
- , Imtiyaz Yaseen
- & Robin C. Allshire
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Letter |
A sensor kinase controls turgor-driven plant infection by the rice blast fungus
The histidine–aspartate kinase Sln1 acts as a molecular sensor of turgor in appressoria of the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, enabling penetration of the host leaf cuticle and plant infection.
- Lauren S. Ryder
- , Yasin F. Dagdas
- & Nicholas J. Talbot
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Letter |
Early fungi from the Proterozoic era in Arctic Canada
Morphological, ultrastructural and spectroscopic analyses identify a fungal affinity for microfossils in shale from Arctic Canada, which pushes back the date for this kingdom to 1,010–890 million years ago.
- Corentin C. Loron
- , Camille François
- & Emmanuelle J. Javaux
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Letter |
Gamete fusion triggers bipartite transcription factor assembly to block re-fertilization
During sexual reproduction in Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the rapid reconstitution of a bipartite Mi–Pi transcription complex after fusion blocks re-fertilization and induces meiosis, which ensures that the genome is maintained.
- Aleksandar Vještica
- , Laura Merlini
- & Sophie G. Martin
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Letter |
Karyotype engineering by chromosome fusion leads to reproductive isolation in yeast
Yeast chromosomes have been fused to produce viable strains with only two chromosomes that are reproductively isolated from the sixteen-chromosome wild type, but otherwise show high fitness in mitosis and meiosis.
- Jingchuan Luo
- , Xiaoji Sun
- & Jef D. Boeke
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Article |
Environment and host as large-scale controls of ectomycorrhizal fungi
Analyses of data from 137 forest plots across 20 European countries show that ectomycorrhizal fungal diversity is strongly influenced by environmental and host species factors and provide thresholds to inform ecosystem assessment tools
- Sietse van der Linde
- , Laura M. Suz
- & Martin I. Bidartondo
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Letter |
Recognition of DHN-melanin by a C-type lectin receptor is required for immunity to Aspergillus
The C-type lectin receptor MelLec recognizes DHN-melanin in conidial spores of Aspergillus fumigatus and other DHN-melanized fungi, revealing an important role for this receptor in antifungal immunity in both mice and humans.
- Mark H. T. Stappers
- , Alexandra E. Clark
- & Gordon D. Brown
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Article |
Candidalysin is a fungal peptide toxin critical for mucosal infection
This study identifies a cytolytic peptide toxin in the opportunistic human fungal pathogen Candida albicans—the peptide is both a crucial virulence factor that permeabilizes the host cell plasma membrane and a key signal that triggers a host danger response pathway.
- David L. Moyes
- , Duncan Wilson
- & Julian R. Naglik
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Letter |
Inhibiting fungal multidrug resistance by disrupting an activator–Mediator interaction
A small molecule, inhibitor of a protein–protein interaction between the transcription factor Pdr1 and the Med15 subunit of Mediator in the fungal pathogen Candida glabrata, is identified and characterized here; the compound iKIX1 inhibits Pdr1-mediated gene activation and resensitizes drug-resistant C. glabrata to azole antifungals in vitro and in animal models of disseminated and urinary tract infection.
- Joy L. Nishikawa
- , Andras Boeszoermenyi
- & Haribabu Arthanari
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Letter |
Fungal pathogen uses sex pheromone receptor for chemotropic sensing of host plant signals
Fungal pathogens reorient hyphal growth towards their plant hosts in response to chemical signals; here, directed growth of the plant pathogen Fusarium oxysporum towards the roots of the tomato plant is shown to be triggered by class III peroxidases secreted by the tomato plant, with the fungal response requiring a sex pheromone receptor.
- David Turrà
- , Mennat El Ghalid
- & Antonio Di Pietro
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Letter |
Antifungal drug resistance evoked via RNAi-dependent epimutations
The human fungal pathogen Mucor circinelloides develops spontaneous resistance to an antifungal drug both through mutation and through a newly identified epigenetic RNA-mediated pathway; RNA interference is spontaneously triggered to silence the fkbA gene, giving rise to drug-resistant epimutants that revert to being drug-sensitive once again when grown in the absence of drug.
- Silvia Calo
- , Cecelia Shertz-Wall
- & Joseph Heitman
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Letter |
Amphibians acquire resistance to live and dead fungus overcoming fungal immunosuppression
The fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis has been implicated in the decline of a large number of amphibian species; here it is shown that frogs can learn to avoid the pathogen, acquire resistance to it and be immunized against it using dead pathogen, findings that potentially offer a way in which resistant populations could be reintroduced into areas that have seen catastrophic declines.
- Taegan A. McMahon
- , Brittany F. Sears
- & Jason R. Rohr
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Letter |
Convergent evolution of a fused sexual cycle promotes the haploid lifestyle
In the predominantly diploid yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, regulatory control of mating is separate from meiosis; here the related hemiascomycete yeast Candida lusitaniae is shown to have coordinated regulatory control of mating and meiosis, favouring the formation of haploids.
- Racquel Kim Sherwood
- , Christine M. Scaduto
- & Richard J. Bennett
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Article |
The ‘obligate diploid’ Candida albicans forms mating-competent haploids
Candida albicans is a prominent human fungal pathogen that until now was thought to be an obligate diploid; here it is shown that C. albicans can form viable haploids, that these haploids are able to mate to form heterozygous diploids, and that haploids and their auto-diploids are significantly less fit in vitro and in vivo than heterozygous progenitors or diploids formed by haploid mating pairs.
- Meleah A. Hickman
- , Guisheng Zeng
- & Judith Berman
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News |
Ancient fungi found in deep-sea mud
Discovery raises hopes that sea floor could yield previously unknown antibiotics.
- Richard Monastersky
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Correspondence |
Lichens under threat from ash dieback
- Christopher J. Ellis
- , Brian J. Coppins
- & Peter M. Hollingsworth
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News |
How brainless slime molds redefine intelligence
Single-celled amoebae can remember, make decisions and anticipate change, urging scientists to rethink intelligent behavior.
- Ferris Jabr
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News |
Fungus that controls zombie-ants has own fungal stalker
A specialized parasite fungus can control ants' behavior. But that fungus also faces its own deadly, specialized parasites.
- Katherine Harmon
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Research Highlights |
Cheating yeast finish last
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News & Views |
High-tech yeast ageing
A method commonly employed to study replicative ageing in yeast is laborious and slow. The use of miniaturized culture chambers opens the door for automated molecular analyses of individual cells during ageing.
- Michael Polymenis
- & Brian K. Kennedy
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Letter |
Cryptic peroxisomal targeting via alternative splicing and stop codon read-through in fungi
Translocation of glycolytic enzymes to peroxisomes in fungi suggests broader metabolic role for this organelle.
- Johannes Freitag
- , Julia Ast
- & Michael Bölker
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Research Highlights |
Fungi munch on lead
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Letter |
Experimental infection of bats with Geomyces destructans causes white-nose syndrome
- Jeffrey M. Lorch
- , Carol U. Meteyer
- & David S. Blehert
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Letter |
Saccharomyces cerevisiae THI4p is a suicide thiamine thiazole synthase
- Abhishek Chatterjee
- , N. Dinuka Abeydeera
- & Tadhg P. Begley
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Letter |
Metabolic priming by a secreted fungal effector
- Armin Djamei
- , Kerstin Schipper
- & Regine Kahmann
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News & Views |
A yeast for all reasons
Scientists have begun to overhaul a yeast's genome to make it more stable, engineerable and evolvable. Remarkably, the part-natural, part-synthetic yeast cells function and reproduce without obvious ill effects. See Letter p.471
- Peter J. Enyeart
- & Andrew D. Ellington
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News |
Yeast thrives with partially synthetic genome
Study paves way for large-scale engineering of complex cells.
- Roberta Kwok
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Letter |
Synthetic chromosome arms function in yeast and generate phenotypic diversity by design
- Jessica S. Dymond
- , Sarah M. Richardson
- & Jef D. Boeke
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Research Highlights |
Biofilm for yeast sex
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News |
The evolutionary tree of fungi grows a new branch
Fungi found in UK pond could be part of a previously undiscovered — and extremely diverse — phylum.
- Marian Turner
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Letter |
Discovery of novel intermediate forms redefines the fungal tree of life
- Meredith D. M. Jones
- , Irene Forn
- & Thomas A. Richards
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Q&A |
Turning point: Louise Glass
Microbiologist Louise Glass's new fellowship will help her pursue a longstanding interest in converting fungi to bioenergy.
- Virginia Gewin
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News & Views |
Farming writ small
Social slime moulds graze on bacteria, but save some for transmission in their spores. Strains practising this primitive form of farming coexist with non-farmer strains in an intriguing cost–benefit equilibrium. See Letter p.393
- Jacobus J. Boomsma
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News |
Slime moulds prosper on the microfarm
Soil-dwelling amoebae harvest and transport their food.
- Geoff Marsh
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Article |
Fungal lipochitooligosaccharide symbiotic signals in arbuscular mycorrhiza
Nitrogen-fixing rhizobia use lipochitooligosaccharide (LCO) signal molecules to initiate a symbiotic relationship with plant roots. Although it has been suggested that mycorrhizal fungi also secrete chemical signals for this process, the identity of these molecules was unknown. It is now shown that like rhizobia, mycorrhizal fungi produce LCOs and that these molecules are important for the establishment of the symbiotic relationship between plant root and fungus.
- Fabienne Maillet
- , Véréna Poinsot
- & Jean Dénarié
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Research Highlights |
Genetics: The enigma of genes and environment
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Letter |
Genome-wide measurement of RNA secondary structure in yeast
Experimental determination of the secondary structure of RNA molecules has usually been carried out on a case-by-case basis. Now, however, a deep-sequencing approach has been used to profile the secondary structure of 3,000 distinct messenger RNA transcripts from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The results provide interesting hints about the role of secondary structure in protein translation, and set the stage for the examination of how such structures can change in response to environmental conditions.
- Michael Kertesz
- , Yue Wan
- & Eran Segal
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News & Views |
Sudden larch death
An aggressive and unpredictable fungal pathogen is devastating larch plantations in Britain. Its remarkably broad host range, and the possibility of further geographical spread, give heightened cause for concern.
- Clive Brasier
- & Joan Webber
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News |
Virulent wheat fungus invades South Africa
Mutating and migrating stem rust pathogen could soon spread across the world.
- Natasha Gilbert
The hyphal-specific toxin candidalysin promotes fungal gut commensalism
Fungal meningitis pathogen discovers new appetite for human brains
Spores ride a cooperative wind