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Case NT, Berman J, Blehert DS, Cramer RA, Cuomo C, Currie CR, Ene IV, Fisher MC, Fritz-Laylin LK, Gerstein AC, Glass NL, Gow NAR, Gurr SJ, Hittinger CT, Hohl TM, Iliev ID, James TY, Jin H, Klein BS, Kronstad JW, Lorch JM, McGovern V, Mitchell AP, Segre JA, Shapiro RS, Sheppard DC, Sil A, Stajich JE, Stukenbrock EE, Taylor JW, Thompson D, Wright GD, Heitman J, Cowen LE. The future of fungi: threats and opportunities. G3 (Bethesda) 2022; 12:jkac224. [PMID: 36179219 PMCID: PMC9635647 DOI: 10.1093/g3journal/jkac224] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2022] [Accepted: 08/12/2022] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicola T Case
- Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5G 1M1, Canada
| | - Judith Berman
- Shmunis School of Biomedical and Cancer Research, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
| | - David S Blehert
- U.S. Geological Survey, National Wildlife Health Center, Madison, WI 53711, USA
| | - Robert A Cramer
- Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
| | - Christina Cuomo
- Infectious Disease and Microbiome Program, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
| | - Cameron R Currie
- Department of Bacteriology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - Iuliana V Ene
- Department of Mycology, Institut Pasteur, Université de Paris, Paris 75015, France
| | - Matthew C Fisher
- MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Imperial College, London W2 1PG, UK
| | | | - Aleeza C Gerstein
- Department of Microbiology and Department of Statistics, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada
| | - N Louise Glass
- Plant and Microbial Biology Department, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Neil A R Gow
- Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QD, UK
| | - Sarah J Gurr
- Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QD, UK
| | - Chris Todd Hittinger
- 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
| | - Tobias M Hohl
- Infectious Disease Service, Department of Medicine, and Immunology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - Iliyan D Iliev
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA
| | - Timothy Y James
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Hailing Jin
- Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, Center for Plant Cell Biology, Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California—Riverside, Riverside, CA 92507, USA
| | - Bruce S Klein
- Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
- Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
| | - James W Kronstad
- Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
| | - Jeffrey M Lorch
- U.S. Geological Survey, National Wildlife Health Center, Madison, WI 53711, USA
| | | | - Aaron P Mitchell
- Department of Microbiology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
| | - Julia A Segre
- Microbial Genomics Section, Translational and Functional Genomics Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA
| | - Rebecca S Shapiro
- Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
| | - Donald C Sheppard
- McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunology, Departments of Medicine, Microbiology & Immunology, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada
| | - Anita Sil
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94117, USA
| | - Jason E Stajich
- Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, Center for Plant Cell Biology, Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California—Riverside, Riverside, CA 92507, USA
| | - Eva E Stukenbrock
- Max Planck Fellow Group Environmental Genomics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön 24306, Germany
- Environmental Genomics, Christian-Albrechts University, Kiel 24118, Germany
| | - John W Taylor
- Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California—Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | | | - Gerard D Wright
- 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
| | - Joseph Heitman
- Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Medicine, and Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA
| | - Leah E Cowen
- Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5G 1M1, Canada
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Fisher MC, Gurr SJ, Cuomo CA, Blehert DS, Jin H, Stukenbrock EH, Stajich JE, Kahmann R, Boone C, Denning DW, Gow NAR, Klein BS, Kronstad JW, Sheppard DC, Taylor JW, Wright GD, Heitman J, Casadevall A, Cowen LE. Threats Posed by the Fungal Kingdom to Humans, Wildlife, and Agriculture. mBio 2020; 11:e00449-20. [PMID: 32371596 PMCID: PMC7403777 DOI: 10.1128/mbio.00449-20] [Citation(s) in RCA: 194] [Impact Index Per Article: 48.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
The fungal kingdom includes at least 6 million eukaryotic species and is remarkable with respect to its profound impact on global health, biodiversity, ecology, agriculture, manufacturing, and biomedical research. Approximately 625 fungal species have been reported to infect vertebrates, 200 of which can be human associated, either as commensals and members of our microbiome or as pathogens that cause infectious diseases. These organisms pose a growing threat to human health with the global increase in the incidence of invasive fungal infections, prevalence of fungal allergy, and the evolution of fungal pathogens resistant to some or all current classes of antifungals. More broadly, there has been an unprecedented and worldwide emergence of fungal pathogens affecting animal and plant biodiversity. Approximately 8,000 species of fungi and Oomycetes are associated with plant disease. Indeed, across agriculture, such fungal diseases of plants include new devastating epidemics of trees and jeopardize food security worldwide by causing epidemics in staple and commodity crops that feed billions. Further, ingestion of mycotoxins contributes to ill health and causes cancer. Coordinated international research efforts, enhanced technology translation, and greater policy outreach by scientists are needed to more fully understand the biology and drivers that underlie the emergence of fungal diseases and to mitigate against their impacts. Here, we focus on poignant examples of emerging fungal threats in each of three areas: human health, wildlife biodiversity, and food security.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew C Fisher
- MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom
| | - Sarah J Gurr
- Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
| | - Christina A Cuomo
- Infectious Disease and Microbiome Program, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - David S Blehert
- U.S. Geological Survey, National Wildlife Health Center, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
| | - Hailing Jin
- Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, Center for Plant Cell Biology, Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California-Riverside, Riverside, California, USA
| | - Eva H Stukenbrock
- Max Planck Fellow Group Environmental Genomics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön, Germany
- Environmental Genomics, Christian-Albrechts University, Kiel, Germany
| | - Jason E Stajich
- Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, Center for Plant Cell Biology, Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, University of California-Riverside, Riverside, California, USA
| | - Regine Kahmann
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Department of Organismic Interactions, Marburg, Germany
| | - Charles Boone
- Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- The Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Wako, Saitama, Japan
| | - David W Denning
- The National Aspergillosis Centre, Wythenshawe Hospital, The University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom
| | - Neil A R Gow
- Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
| | - Bruce S Klein
- Department of Pediatrics, Department of Internal Medicine, and Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
| | - James W Kronstad
- Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Donald C Sheppard
- McGill Interdisciplinary Initiative in Infection and Immunology, Departments of Medicine, Microbiology & Immunology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
| | - John W Taylor
- University of California-Berkeley, Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, Berkeley, California, USA
| | - Gerard D Wright
- M.G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, DeGroote School of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
| | - Joseph Heitman
- Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Medicine, and Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, USA
| | - Arturo Casadevall
- Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - Leah E Cowen
- Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Hwang J, Lee K, Walsh D, Kim SW, Sleeman JM, Lee H. Semi-quantitative assessment of disease risks at the human, livestock, wildlife interface for the Republic of Korea using a nationwide survey of experts: A model for other countries. Transbound Emerg Dis 2017; 65:e155-e164. [PMID: 28941164 DOI: 10.1111/tbed.12705] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2017] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Wildlife-associated diseases and pathogens have increased in importance; however, management of a large number of diseases and diversity of hosts is prohibitively expensive. Thus, the determination of priority wildlife pathogens and risk factors for disease emergence is warranted. We used an online questionnaire survey to assess release and exposure risks, and consequences of wildlife-associated diseases and pathogens in the Republic of Korea (ROK). We also surveyed opinions on pathways for disease exposure, and risk factors for disease emergence and spread. For the assessment of risk, we employed a two-tiered, statistical K-means clustering algorithm to group diseases into three levels (high, medium and low) of perceived risk based on release and exposure risks, societal consequences and the level of uncertainty of the experts' opinions. To examine the experts' perceived risk of routes of introduction of pathogens and disease amplification and spread, we used a Bayesian, multivariate normal order-statistics model. Six diseases or pathogens, including four livestock and two wildlife diseases, were identified as having high risk with low uncertainty. Similarly, 13 diseases were characterized as having high risk with medium uncertainty with three of these attributed to livestock, six associated with human disease, and the remainder having the potential to affect human, livestock and wildlife (i.e., One Health). Lastly, four diseases were described as high risk with high certainty, and were associated solely with fish diseases. Experts identified migration of wildlife, international human movement and illegal importation of wildlife as the three routes posing the greatest risk of pathogen introduction into ROK. Proximity of humans, livestock and wildlife was the most significant risk factor for promoting the spread of wildlife-associated diseases and pathogens, followed by high density of livestock populations, habitat loss and environmental degradation, and climate change. This study provides useful information to decision makers responsible for allocating resources to address disease risks. This approach provided a rapid, cost-effective method of risk assessment of wildlife-associated diseases and pathogens for which the published literature is sparse.
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Affiliation(s)
- J Hwang
- Conservation Genome Resource Bank for Korean Wildlife, College of Veterinary Medicine and Research Institute for Veterinary Science, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
| | - K Lee
- Cetacean Research Institute, National Institute of Fisheries Science, Nam-gu, Ulsan, Korea
| | - D Walsh
- USGS National Wildlife Health Center, Madison, WI, USA
| | - S W Kim
- Conservation Genome Resource Bank for Korean Wildlife, College of Veterinary Medicine and Research Institute for Veterinary Science, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
| | - J M Sleeman
- Conservation Genome Resource Bank for Korean Wildlife, College of Veterinary Medicine and Research Institute for Veterinary Science, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.,USGS National Wildlife Health Center, Madison, WI, USA
| | - H Lee
- Conservation Genome Resource Bank for Korean Wildlife, College of Veterinary Medicine and Research Institute for Veterinary Science, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
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