Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
2.7
3.2
Journals
Life
Special Issues
The Dual Role of Fungi as Pathogens and Commensals
share announcement

The Dual Role of Fungi as Pathogens and Commensals

A special issue of Life (ISSN 2075-1729). This special issue belongs to the section "Microbiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 May 2022) | Viewed by 4420

Special Issue Editor

Dr. ‪Joana Rolo‬

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CICS-UBI Centro de Investigação em Ciências da Saúde, Universidade da Beira Interior, 6200-506 Covilhã, Portugal
Interests: vulvovaginal; essential oils; yeast; virulence; resistance; recurrence
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Fungi constitute a remarkably diverse group of microorganisms, including unicellular and multicellular entities with different modes of life. These microorganisms are ubiquitous, and therefore, interaction between mammals and fungi is expected to occur often. Fungi have been regarded as harmless for many years. However, the burden of fungal infections has been increasing worldwide, including life-threatening illnesses. Treatment of these infections is often complicated because intrinsic resistance to antifungals can occur. Furthermore, fighting an infection caused by eukaryotic cells is often challenging. Therefore, in recent years, a lot of efforts have been made to elucidate the cues used by fungi to colonize and infect mammals, namely the ability to resist antifungals, differential expression of virulence factors, the strategies used to escape the host immune system, and the mechanisms used by Fungi to cause recurrent infections. Advances in the development of high-throughput sequencing technologies have helped to advance this knowledge in the field of genomics and transcriptomics.

In this Special Issue of Life, we invite researchers from all over the world to share with us advances in our understanding of ecological, cellular, and molecular mechanisms used by fungi to adapt, colonize, and infect mammal hosts. This includes original work and review articles dealing with host adaptation, evolution, virulence factors, antifungal resistance, and also those that include high-throughput technologies to study host–fungal interactions.

Dr. ‪Joana Rolo‬
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Life is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • yeast
  • filamentous fungi
  • in vitro models
  • in vivo experiments
  • virulence
  • adaptation
  • evolution
  • drug resistance
  • tolerance
  • host–pathogen interactions
  • host–pathogen transcriptional dynamics

Published Papers (2 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

9 pages, 490 KiB  
Article
Entomopathogenic Fungi Infecting Lepidopteran Larvae: A Case from Central Argentina
by Robin Gielen, Gerardo Robledo, Adriana Inés Zapata, Toomas Tammaru and Kadri Põldmaa
Life 2022, 12(7), 974; https://doi.org/10.3390/life12070974 - 29 Jun 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1463
Abstract
Immature stages of insects are vulnerable to various antagonists, including pathogens. While the abiotic factors affecting pathogen prevalence in insect populations are reasonably well documented, much less is known about relevant ecological interactions. We studied the probability of the larvae of three lepidopteran [...] Read more.
Immature stages of insects are vulnerable to various antagonists, including pathogens. While the abiotic factors affecting pathogen prevalence in insect populations are reasonably well documented, much less is known about relevant ecological interactions. We studied the probability of the larvae of three lepidopteran species to die from fungal infection as a function of insect species and food plants in central Argentina. Local free-growing food plants were used to feed the lepidopteran larvae. The prevalence of entomopathogenic fungi remained low (about 5%), which is a value well consistent with observations on similar systems in other regions. Eight fungal species recorded, primarily belonging to Fusarium and Aspergillus, add evidence to the reconsideration of the nutritional modes in these genera in distinguishing the role of some species (complexes) to cause insect infections. Food plant species were found to have a substantial effect on the prevalence of entomopathogenic fungi. This was especially clear for the most abundant fungal species, a representative of the Fusarium fujikuroi complex. Feeding on a particular plant taxon can thus have a specific fitness cost. Compared to the data collected from Northern Europe, the Argentinian assemblages from the families Aspergillaceae and Nectriaceae overlapped at the genus level but did not share species. It remains to be confirmed if this level of divergence in the composition of assemblages of entomopathogenic fungi among distant regions represents a global pattern. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Dual Role of Fungi as Pathogens and Commensals)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

17 pages, 770 KiB  
Article
Epidemiological Characterization of Clinical Fungal Isolates from Pauls Stradinš Clinical University Hospital, Latvia: A 4-Year Surveillance Report
by Nityanand Jain, Inese Jansone, Tatjana Obidenova, Raimonds Sīmanis, Jānis Meisters, Dagnija Straupmane and Aigars Reinis
Life 2021, 11(10), 1002; https://doi.org/10.3390/life11101002 - 23 Sep 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2246
Abstract
Nosocomial fungal infections are an emerging global public health threat that requires urgent attention and proper management. With the limited availability of treatment options, it has become necessary to understand the emerging epidemiological trends, mechanisms, and risk factors. However, very limited surveillance reports [...] Read more.
Nosocomial fungal infections are an emerging global public health threat that requires urgent attention and proper management. With the limited availability of treatment options, it has become necessary to understand the emerging epidemiological trends, mechanisms, and risk factors. However, very limited surveillance reports are available in the Latvian and broader European context. We therefore conducted a retrospective analysis of laboratory data (2017–2020) from Pauls Stradinš Clinical University Hospital (PSCUH), Riga, Latvia, which is one of the largest public multispecialty hospitals in Latvia. A total of 2278 fungal isolates were analyzed during the study period, with Candida spp. comprising 95% of the isolates, followed by Aspergillus spp. and Geotrichum spp. Amongst the Candida spp., C. albicans and C. glabrata made up about 75% of the isolates. The Department of Lung Diseases and Thoracic Surgery had the highest caseload followed by Intensive Care Department. Majority of the fungal isolates were collected from the bronchoalveolar lavage (37%), followed by urine (19%) and sputum (18%) samples. A total of 34 cases of candidemia were noted during the study period with C. albicans being the most common candidemia pathogen. Proper surveillance of emerging epidemiological trends serve as the most reliable and powerful cornerstone towards tackling this emerging threat. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Dual Role of Fungi as Pathogens and Commensals)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-2
Back to TopTop