Final Report Summary - MITOFUN (Mitochondria as regulators of fungal virulence)
Over the course of the project, we made a number of important and hitherto unknown discoveries. Specifically, we discovered:
a) that extracellular vesicles, shed by the fungus, help regulate virulence within the host
b) that host cells have a conserved inflammatory pathway that helps to 'eject' fungi
c) that hybridisation and novel gene exchange alters transcriptional pathways and has a lasting impact on virulence traits
In addition, we worked with collaborators in several different fields to develop technologies and tools that have a wide impact, beyond the direct questions of MitoFun. These include novel mass-spectrometry approaches for fungal diagnosis, novel decontamination strategies for fungi, and some promising 'redeployment' options for antifungal drug therapy.