The Fungal Spore and Disease Initiation in Plants and Animals

This treatise is focused on early aspects of fungal pathogenesis in plant and animal hosts. Our aim in choosing the topics and contributors was to demonstrate common approaches to studies of fungal-plant and fungal-animal interactions, particularly at the biochemical and molecular Ievels. For example, the initial events of adh«sion of fungal spores to the exposed surface tissues of the host are essential for subsequent invasion of the plant or animal and establishment of pathogenesis. A point of consensus among investigators who have directed their attention to such events in plants, insects, and vertebrates isthat spore adhesion to the host cuticle or epithelium is more than a simple binding event. lt is a complex and potentially pivotal process in fungal-plant interactions which "may involve the secretion of ftuids that prepare the infection court for the development of morphological stages of the germling" and subsequent invasion of the host (Nicholson and Epstein, Chapter 1). The attachment of the fungal propagule to the arthropod cuticle is also "mediated by the chemical components present on the outer layer of the spore wall and the epicuticle . . . . Initial attachment may be reinforced further by either the active secretion of adhesive materials or the modification of spore wall materiallocated at the [fungal spore­ arthropod] cuticle interface (Boucias and Pendland, Chapter 5). Front Matter....Pages i-xxv Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Adhesion of Fungi to the Plant Surface....Pages 3-23 Signaling for Infection Structure Formation in Fungi....Pages 25-46 The Plant Cell Wall as a Barrier to Fungal Invasion....Pages 47-66 Rust Basidiospore Germlings and Disease Initiation....Pages 67-99 Attachment of Mycopathogens to Cuticle....Pages 101-127 The Fate of Fungal Spores in the Insect Gut....Pages 129-156 Candida Blastospore Adhesion, Association, and Invasion of the Gastrointestinal Tract of Vertebrates....Pages 157-180 Infectious Propagules of Dermatophytes....Pages 181-202 Front Matter....Pages 203-203 Melanin Biosynthesis....Pages 205-218 The Plant Cuticle....Pages 219-246 Appearance of Pathogen-Related Proteins in Plant Hosts....Pages 247-265 The Role of Cuticle-Degrading Enzymes in Fungal Pathogenesis in Insects....Pages 267-286 Potential for Penetration of Passive Barriers to Fungal Invasion in Humans....Pages 287-295 Dihydroxynaphthalene (DHN) Melanin and Its Relationship with Virulence in the Early Stages of Phaeohyphomycosis....Pages 297-318 Front Matter....Pages 319-319 Invasion of Plants by Powdery Mildew Fungi, and Cellular Mechanisms of Resistance....Pages 321-345 Induced Systemic Resistance in Plants....Pages 347-362 The Plant Membrane and Its Response to Disease....Pages 363-378 The Fungal Spore....Pages 379-401 Conidia of Coccidioides immitis....Pages 403-443 Cell-Mediated Host Response to Fungal Aggression....Pages 445-460 Front Matter....Pages 319-319 Suppression of Phagocytic Cell Responses by Conidia and Conidial Products of Aspergillus fumigatus....Pages 461-480 Front Matter....Pages 481-481 Molecular Approaches to the Analysis of Pathogenicity Genes from Fungi Causing Plant Disease....Pages 483-502 Current Status of the Molecular Basis of Candida Pathogenicity....Pages 503-540 Back Matter....Pages 541-555 This treatise is focused on early aspects of fungal pathogenesis in plant and animal hosts. Our aim in choosing the topics and contributors was to demonstrate common approaches to studies of fungal-plant and fungal-animal interactions, particularly at the biochemical and molecular Ievels. For example, the initial events of adh±sion of fungal spores to the exposed surface tissues of the host are essential for subsequent invasion of the plant or animal and establishment of pathogenesis. A point of consensus among investigators who have directed their attention to such events in plants, insects, and vertebrates isthat spore adhesion to the host cuticle or epithelium is more than a simple binding event. lt is a complex and potentially pivotal process in fungal-plant interactions which "may involve the secretion of ftuids that prepare the infection court for the development of morphological stages of the germling" and subsequent invasion of the host (Nicholson and Epstein, Chapter 1). The attachment of the fungal propagule to the arthropod cuticle is also "mediated by the chemical components present on the outer layer of the spore wall and the epicuticle ... Initial attachment may be reinforced further by either the active secretion of adhesive materials or the modification of spore wall materiallocated at the [fungal sporeƯ arthropod] cuticle interface (Boucias and Pendland, Chapter 5) Most researchers and educators in mycosis diseases caused by fungus are specialists in either plants or animals. The purpose of this collection of essays is to explore the similarities and differences in the two kinds of hosts through the four stages of fungal infection, to aid understanding of the mechanisms underlying both, and to introduce patho