About this Research Topic
Fungi are known as emerging destructive pathogens of agriculturally important plants, causing billions of Euros to be lost every year. In addition, they pose severe risks to human health by contaminating food products with mycotoxins. The application of medically related antifungal drugs in agriculture as fungicides has triggered the development of resistance mechanisms and has resulted in promoting environmental reservoirs for drug-resistant human pathogens. In spite of the increasing number of life-threatening fungal infections with high mortality rates, caused by drug-resistant strains, and the fact that the prolonged antifungal therapies can seriously damage the host’s organs, new studies concerning the development of fast and safely applicable antifungal strategies are still neglected by the pharmaceutical industry and in medicine. With this considered, there is a substantial demand for the development of new and safely applicable antifungal strategies to prevent and treat fungal infections that threaten human welfare.
The already intensively studied antifungal peptides and proteins, show high fungal-selectivity and antimicrobial efficacy and provide a fundamental new and feasible base to address the global antifungal challenge. The knowledge about their efficacy, antifungal mechanism and structure is continuously expanding; but the available information about their fungal-specific targets is still limited. The present Research Topic goal is to collect cutting-edge research contributions which summarize the current knowledge on these aspects of the antifungal active peptides and proteins as well as their potential application in agriculture and medicine.
This Research Topic welcomes original research articles, reviews or mini reviews focusing on isolation, characterization, structure, mode of action, phylogeny, and potential agricultural or medical application of antifungal active natural or synthetic peptides and proteins.
The already intensively studied antifungal peptides and proteins, show high fungal-selectivity and antimicrobial efficacy and provide a fundamental new and feasible base to address the global antifungal challenge. The knowledge about their efficacy, antifungal mechanism and structure is continuously expanding; but the available information about their fungal-specific targets is still limited. The present Research Topic goal is to collect cutting-edge research contributions which summarize the current knowledge on these aspects of the antifungal active peptides and proteins as well as their potential application in agriculture and medicine.
This Research Topic welcomes original research articles, reviews or mini reviews focusing on isolation, characterization, structure, mode of action, phylogeny, and potential agricultural or medical application of antifungal active natural or synthetic peptides and proteins.
Keywords: Fungal Infection, Antifungal Peptide, Antifungal Protein, Agriculture, Medicine
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.
