MYCOLab Ai Logo - gold and army green

Fungal Priming: Prepare or Perish

Summary

This research examines how fungi can ‘remember’ and adapt to stressful conditions they’ve previously encountered, similar to how vaccines work to prepare immune systems. This ability to learn from past stress helps fungi survive better in challenging environments. Impact on everyday life: – Helps explain why some fungi become resistant to antifungal medications – Provides insights into how crop-damaging fungi adapt to agricultural fungicides – Suggests new approaches for controlling harmful fungi in agriculture and medicine – Explains how fungi are adapting to climate change – Influences food preservation and storage methods

Background

Priming, also known as acclimation, acquired stress resistance, adaptive response, or cross-protection, is defined as an exposure of an organism to mild stress that leads to the development of a subsequent stronger and more protective response. This memory of previously encountered stress provides a survival advantage in rapidly shifting environments. Priming has been identified across kingdoms including animals, plants, fungi and bacteria.

Objective

This review aims to provide an introduction to priming across kingdoms of life, with specific emphasis on fungal priming. It focuses on characterizing priming responses in yeast and filamentous fungi, examining the mechanisms and implications for stress resistance and virulence.

Results

The review found that priming mechanisms vary between fungal species and can involve changes in RNA/protein expression, metabolite levels, and epigenetic modifications. Priming effects can persist for varying durations – from days to weeks and even across generations. In filamentous fungi, spores can be primed while still attached to the parent organism, preparing them for future stress conditions.

Conclusion

Fungal priming remains largely understudied with many unanswered questions about shared pathways, divergent mechanisms, and implications for adaptation to environmental stresses. Understanding priming mechanisms has important implications for food security and disease control, particularly in context of global warming and agricultural fungicide use.
  • Published in:Journal of Fungi,
  • Study Type:Review,
  • Source: 10.3390/jof8050448
Scroll to Top