Research Progress of Environmental Factors and Signal Transduction Pathways of Dimorphism in Fungi

Abstract:

Dimorphism is the capacity displayed by different fungi to grow in the form of yeast or mycelium, depending on the environmental conditions. It has long been believed that phase transition between yeast and mycelium is obligatory for pathogenicity in some dimorphic fungi, so dimorphism of fungi attracts a great deal of attention in recent years. Dimorphic transition is regulated by a variety of extracellular factors including physical factors, chemical factors and nutritional factors, and it is also regulated by intracellular signal transduction pathways such as cAMP-PKA, MAPK and Rim101. This review focuses on recent research progress on environmental factors and signal transduction pathways that affect dimorphism in fungi.

Key words:Fungi, Dimorphism, Environmental factor, Signal transduction pathway