TY - CHAP
T1 - Amoeba provide insight into the origin of virulence in pathogenic fungi
AU - Casadevall, Arturo
PY - 2012/1/2
Y1 - 2012/1/2
N2 - Why are some fungi pathogenic while the majority poses no threat to humans or other hosts? Of the more than 1.5 million fungal species only about 150-300 are pathogenic for humans, and of these, only 10-15 are relatively common pathogens. In contrast, fungi are major pathogens for plants and insects. These facts pose several fundamental questions including the mechanisms responsible for the origin of virulence among the few pathogenic species and the high resistance of mammals to fungal diseases. This essay explores the origin of virulences among environmental fungi with no obvious requirement for animal association and proposes that selection pressures by amoeboid predators led to the emergence of traits that can also promote survival in mammalian hosts. In this regard, analysis of the interactions between the human pathogenic funges Cryptococcus neoformans and amoeba have shown a remarkable similarity with the interaction of this fungus with macrophages. Hence the virulence of environmental pathogenic fungi is proposed to originate from a combination of selection by amoeboid predators and perhaps other soil organism with thermal tolerance sufficient to allow survival in mammalian hosts
AB - Why are some fungi pathogenic while the majority poses no threat to humans or other hosts? Of the more than 1.5 million fungal species only about 150-300 are pathogenic for humans, and of these, only 10-15 are relatively common pathogens. In contrast, fungi are major pathogens for plants and insects. These facts pose several fundamental questions including the mechanisms responsible for the origin of virulence among the few pathogenic species and the high resistance of mammals to fungal diseases. This essay explores the origin of virulences among environmental fungi with no obvious requirement for animal association and proposes that selection pressures by amoeboid predators led to the emergence of traits that can also promote survival in mammalian hosts. In this regard, analysis of the interactions between the human pathogenic funges Cryptococcus neoformans and amoeba have shown a remarkable similarity with the interaction of this fungus with macrophages. Hence the virulence of environmental pathogenic fungi is proposed to originate from a combination of selection by amoeboid predators and perhaps other soil organism with thermal tolerance sufficient to allow survival in mammalian hosts
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U2 - 10.1007/978-1-4419-5638-5_1
DO - 10.1007/978-1-4419-5638-5_1
M3 - Chapter
C2 - 22127880
AN - SCOPUS:84555195193
SN - 9781441956378
T3 - Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology
SP - 1
EP - 10
BT - Recent Advances on Model Hosts
A2 - Mylonakis, Eleftherios
A2 - Ausubel, Frederick
A2 - Gilmore, Michael
A2 - Casadevall, Arturo
ER -