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Plants, fungi, and antifungals: A little less talk, a little more action

Summary

Researchers propose looking at how plants communicate with fungi to discover new antifungal medicines. Plants send chemical signals to fungi, and understanding these signals could help us develop better treatments for fungal infections in humans and crops. By studying a simple yeast model, scientists found that plant molecules called strigolactones control fungal phosphate metabolism, suggesting they could become new drug targets.

Background

Fungal pathogens are understudied despite causing up to 40% of crop losses worldwide and nearly four million deaths annually. Fungal diseases now exceed malaria and breast cancer cases. Current antifungal treatments are limited to four drug classes, primarily targeting the fungal cell wall or ergosterol, leading to growing antifungal resistance.

Objective

To propose exploiting plant-fungal chemical communication as a source for discovering new antifungal compounds and identifying novel druggable targets in fungi. The authors argue that understanding how plants signal to fungi through small molecules could unlock new classes of antifungals.

Results

Plants produce eight small molecule hormones, six of which influence fungal processes including growth, filamentation, and metabolism. Strigolactones are identified as signals affecting phosphate homeostasis in diverse fungal species through the Pho84 phosphate transporter. Pho84 is shown to be a viable drug target in pathogenic fungi including Cryptococcus neoformans and Candida albicans.

Conclusion

Plant-derived small molecules represent an untapped resource for antifungal drug discovery, targeting precise fungal processes with potential applications in human and agricultural infections. The authors propose that plant hormones may have originated as ecological signals to coordinate ancestral plant-fungal symbioses, suggesting other plant compounds could be coopted as antifungals.
  • Published in:PLoS Pathogens,
  • Study Type:Review,
  • Source: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1013395; PMID: 40763154
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