The future of fungi: threats and opportunities

doi:10.1093/g3journal/jkac224

. 2022 Nov 4;12(11):jkac224.

doi: 10.1093/g3journal/jkac224.

The future of fungi: threats and opportunities

Nicola T Case¹, Judith Berman², David S Blehert³, Robert A Cramer⁴, Christina Cuomo⁵, Cameron R Currie⁶, Iuliana V Ene⁷, Matthew C Fisher⁸, Lillian K Fritz-Laylin⁹, Aleeza C Gerstein¹⁰, N Louise Glass¹¹, Neil A R Gow¹², Sarah J Gurr¹², Chris Todd Hittinger¹³, Tobias M Hohl¹⁴, Iliyan D Iliev¹⁵, Timothy Y James¹⁶, Hailing Jin¹⁷, Bruce S Klein^{18

19

20}, James W Kronstad²¹, Jeffrey M Lorch³, Victoria McGovern²², Aaron P Mitchell²³, Julia A Segre²⁴, Rebecca S Shapiro²⁵, Donald C Sheppard²⁶, Anita Sil²⁷, Jason E Stajich¹⁷, Eva E Stukenbrock^{28

29}, John W Taylor³⁰, Dawn Thompson³¹, Gerard D Wright³², Joseph Heitman³³, Leah E Cowen¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5G 1M1, Canada.
² Shmunis School of Biomedical and Cancer Research, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
³ U.S. Geological Survey, National Wildlife Health Center, Madison, WI 53711, USA.
⁴ Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH 03755, USA.
⁵ Infectious Disease and Microbiome Program, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
⁶ Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
⁷ Department of Mycology, Institut Pasteur, Université de Paris, Paris 75015, France.
⁸ MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Imperial College, London W2 1PG, UK.
⁹ Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Microbiology and Department of Statistics, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada.
¹¹ Plant and Microbial Biology Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
¹² Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QD, UK.
¹³ Laboratory of Genetics, Center for Genomic Science Innovation, J.F. Crow Institute for the Study of Evolution, DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, Wisconsin Energy Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53726, USA.
¹⁴ Infectious Disease Service, Department of Medicine, and Immunology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, New York, NY 10065, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, Center for Plant Cell Biology, Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California-Riverside, Riverside, CA 92507, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
²⁰ Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
²¹ Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.
²² Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Durham, NC 13901, USA.
²³ Department of Microbiology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
²⁴ Microbial Genomics Section, Translational and Functional Genomics Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
²⁵ Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada.
²⁶ McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunology, Departments of Medicine, Microbiology & Immunology, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada.
²⁷ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94117, USA.
²⁸ Max Planck Fellow Group Environmental Genomics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön 24306, Germany.
²⁹ Environmental Genomics, Christian-Albrechts University, Kiel 24118, Germany.
³⁰ Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
³¹ LifeMine Therapeutics, Cambridge, MA 02140, USA.
³² M.G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, DeGroote School of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8N 3Z5, Canada.
³³ Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Medicine, and Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.

PMID: 36179219
PMCID: PMC9635647
DOI: 10.1093/g3journal/jkac224

The future of fungi: threats and opportunities

Nicola T Case et al. G3 (Bethesda). 2022.

. 2022 Nov 4;12(11):jkac224.

doi: 10.1093/g3journal/jkac224.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5G 1M1, Canada.
² Shmunis School of Biomedical and Cancer Research, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
³ U.S. Geological Survey, National Wildlife Health Center, Madison, WI 53711, USA.
⁴ Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH 03755, USA.
⁵ Infectious Disease and Microbiome Program, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
⁶ Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
⁷ Department of Mycology, Institut Pasteur, Université de Paris, Paris 75015, France.
⁸ MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Imperial College, London W2 1PG, UK.
⁹ Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Microbiology and Department of Statistics, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada.
¹¹ Plant and Microbial Biology Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
¹² Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QD, UK.
¹³ Laboratory of Genetics, Center for Genomic Science Innovation, J.F. Crow Institute for the Study of Evolution, DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, Wisconsin Energy Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53726, USA.
¹⁴ Infectious Disease Service, Department of Medicine, and Immunology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, New York, NY 10065, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, Center for Plant Cell Biology, Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California-Riverside, Riverside, CA 92507, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
²⁰ Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
²¹ Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.
²² Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Durham, NC 13901, USA.
²³ Department of Microbiology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
²⁴ Microbial Genomics Section, Translational and Functional Genomics Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
²⁵ Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada.
²⁶ McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunology, Departments of Medicine, Microbiology & Immunology, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada.
²⁷ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94117, USA.
²⁸ Max Planck Fellow Group Environmental Genomics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön 24306, Germany.
²⁹ Environmental Genomics, Christian-Albrechts University, Kiel 24118, Germany.
³⁰ Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
³¹ LifeMine Therapeutics, Cambridge, MA 02140, USA.
³² M.G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, DeGroote School of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8N 3Z5, Canada.
³³ Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Medicine, and Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.

PMID: 36179219
PMCID: PMC9635647
DOI: 10.1093/g3journal/jkac224

Abstract

The fungal kingdom represents an extraordinary diversity of organisms with profound impacts across animal, plant, and ecosystem health. Fungi simultaneously support life, by forming beneficial symbioses with plants and producing life-saving medicines, and bring death, by causing devastating diseases in humans, plants, and animals. With climate change, increased antimicrobial resistance, global trade, environmental degradation, and novel viruses altering the impact of fungi on health and disease, developing new approaches is now more crucial than ever to combat the threats posed by fungi and to harness their extraordinary potential for applications in human health, food supply, and environmental remediation. To address this aim, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund convened a workshop to unite leading experts on fungal biology from academia and industry to strategize innovative solutions to global challenges and fungal threats. This report provides recommendations to accelerate fungal research and highlights the major research advances and ideas discussed at the meeting pertaining to 5 major topics: (1) Connections between fungi and climate change and ways to avert climate catastrophe; (2) Fungal threats to humans and ways to mitigate them; (3) Fungal threats to agriculture and food security and approaches to ensure a robust global food supply; (4) Fungal threats to animals and approaches to avoid species collapse and extinction; and (5) Opportunities presented by the fungal kingdom, including novel medicines and enzymes.

Keywords: ecosystem health; fungal pathogens; medical mycology; plant-pathogenic fungi; sustainability; wildlife pathogens.

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Figures

**Fig. 1.**
Recommendations to promote advances in fungal research. Created with BioRender.com.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

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References

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[1] Adamczyk B. How do boreal forest soils store carbon? BioEssays. 2021;43(7):2100010. - PubMed

[2] Adamczyk B. How do boreal forest soils store carbon? BioEssays. 2021;43(7):2100010. - PubMed

[3] American Society for Microbiology. One Health: Fungal Pathogens of Humans, Animals, and Plants: Report on an American Academy of Microbiology Colloquium held in Washington, DC, October 18, 2017; 2019. - PubMed

[4] American Society for Microbiology. One Health: Fungal Pathogens of Humans, Animals, and Plants: Report on an American Academy of Microbiology Colloquium held in Washington, DC, October 18, 2017; 2019. - PubMed

[5] Arné P, Risco-Castillo V, Jouvion G, Le Barzic C, Guillot J.. Aspergillosis in wild birds. J Fungi. 2021;7(3):241. - PMC - PubMed

[6] Arné P, Risco-Castillo V, Jouvion G, Le Barzic C, Guillot J.. Aspergillosis in wild birds. J Fungi. 2021;7(3):241. - PMC - PubMed

[7] Arora NK, Mishra I.. United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and environmental sustainability: race against time. Environ Sustain. 2019;2(4):339–342.

[8] Arora NK, Mishra I.. United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and environmental sustainability: race against time. Environ Sustain. 2019;2(4):339–342.

[9] Arora P, Singh P, Wang Y, Yadav A, Pawar K, Singh A, Padmavati G, Xu J, Chowdhary A.. Environmental isolation of Candida auris from the coastal wetlands of Andaman Islands, India. mBio. 2021;12(2):e03181-20. - PMC - PubMed

[10] Arora P, Singh P, Wang Y, Yadav A, Pawar K, Singh A, Padmavati G, Xu J, Chowdhary A.. Environmental isolation of Candida auris from the coastal wetlands of Andaman Islands, India. mBio. 2021;12(2):e03181-20. - PMC - PubMed

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The future of fungi: threats and opportunities

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The future of fungi: threats and opportunities

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