About this Research Topic
Fungal primary metabolism has been mainly explored and manipulated for biotechnological applications, with the most famous examples notably being ethanol production by the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae or citric acid production by the filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger. SM biosynthesis and secretion has also received a lot of attention in recent years, including the screening of fungal genomes for gene biosynthetic clusters encoding novel SMs and the identification of regulatory mechanisms underlying SM production. Despite this increased interest in fungal natural products, a substantial amount of research remains to be undertaken in order to fully understand SM identification, function, and exploration for biomedical applications. In addition, fungal primary metabolism and its regulatory role in the expression of different virulence traits has been largely neglected. A recent study described how glucose metabolism and its regulation by different protein kinases can affect cell wall architecture in Aspergillus fumigatus, highlighting the importance of primary metabolism for the production and employment of virulence factors.
The aim of this Research Topic is to investigate primary and secondary metabolism in fungi implicated as causal agents of disease in human and plants, and elucidate and characterize these mechanisms in the context of virulence. We welcome Original Research papers that investigate the identification and production of primary and secondary metabolites and their relevance for fungal virulence. We also accept papers that use fungi to model mammalian metabolic diseases. Subtopics include:
• Understanding primary metabolism through the investigation of regulatory mechanisms
• Primary metabolism and its impact on virulence traits
• Identification of secondary metabolites
• Regulatory mechanisms underlying secondary metabolite production
• Using fungi as models for metabolism-related diseases in plants and mammals including humans
Keywords: fungi, primary and secondary metabolism, virulence, biotechnology, interactions
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.