6^th International Conference on
Mycology and Fungal Infections

Pathogenic fungi cause disease in humans and in other organisms, which is called as fungal pathogenesis. Fungal pathogens can be divided into two classes primary pathogens and opportunistic pathogens. presently, there has been a dramatic increase in fungal infections of this kind, candidiasis, cryptococcosis, aspergillosis, and zygomycosis. More currently described mycoses of this class include hyalohyphomycosis and phaeohyphomycosis.

• The superficial mycoses -those are superficial fungal infections of the skin or hair shaft.

• Dermatophytosis - ringworm or tinea - ringworm of scalp, glabrous pores and skin, and nails because of an intently associated group of fungi referred to as dermatophytes.

• The subcutaneous mycoses - these are continual, localized infections of the skin and subcutaneous tissue following the worrying implantation of the aetiologic agent.

• Infectious ailment mycology - these are fungal infections of the body because of dimorphic fungal pathogens.

Opportunistic fungi refers to those fungi that normally would not cause infections in otherwise healthy people but are able to cause infection under certain circumstances such as immune defficiency, cancer, organ transplant, neutropenic patients, diabetes, debilitated patients and patients on long term antibiotics.

Many fungi are opportunists and are usually not pathogenic except in an immunocompromised host. Causes of immunocompromise include AIDS, azotemia, diabetes mellitus, lymphoma, leukemia, other hematologic cancers, burns, and therapy with corticosteroids, immunosuppressants, or antimetabolites. Patients who spend more than several days in an ICU can become compromised because of medical procedures, underlying disorders and undernutrition.

Epidemiological patterns that have developed among insusceptible stifled are an expanded rate of obtrusive shape contaminations, for example, aspergillosis. The rising intrusive contagious diseases in the strong organ transplant beneficiaries are candidiasis (53% of all obtrusive parasitic contaminations found) trailed by intrusive aspergillosis (19%),  cryptococcosis (8%), non-Aspergillus molds (8%), endemic growths (5%), and zygomycosis (2%).8 There is increment in rate of contaminations brought about by non-albicans Candida species, for example, Candida tropicalis, Candida parapsilosis, and Candida glabrata which are segregated substantially more as often as possible as reasons for intrusive candidiasis worldwide however C. albicans still remains the most widely recognized segregate.

The lab analysis gives a scope of demonstrative tests for the discovery and recognizable proof of superficial and invasive fungal infections, including culture, molecules and proteomic strategies, serologic tests, and antifungal susceptibility testing. The defeat of the greater part of these methodologies, as indicated by Pfaller, is that most rely upon the development of fungi in culture, a procedure that is both slow and insensitive.

An antifungal medication is a pharmaceutical fungicide or fungi static used to treat and prevent mycoses, which are most commonly found on the skin, hair and nails. It works by exploiting differences between mammalian and fungal cells to kill the fungal organism with fewer adverse effects to the host.  Antifungal medicines are used in several ways, depending on the specific fungal infection. The main types of antifungal medicines include, topical antifungals, oral antifungals, intravenous antifungals, intracranial antifungal pessaries etc.

Fungi occur in all type of environment on earth and plays vital roles in most ecosystems. These are the major decomposers along with bacteria in most terrestrial and some aquatic ecosystems, and therefore play a critical role in biogeochemical cycles and in many food webs play an essential role in nutrient cycling by degrading organic matters to inorganic molecules, which can then re-enter to different anabolic metabolic pathways in plants and other organisms.

Most industrial Processes used fungal cells for the major production of organic acids, proteins, enzymes, secondary metabolites and lively pharmaceutical substances in white and red biotechnology. A number of challenges now need to be addressed to improve our techniques to control fungal pathogenicity and to optimise using fungi as sources for novel compounds. In addition to the multiple response sequences of fermentations, fungi are extremly useful in the biotransformation processes. Molecular manipulations had been added to mutational strategies as a method of increasing yields of microbial processes and in the discovery of new drugs.

The fungi that are responsible for causing diseases in humans, animals and plants are referred to as Pathogenic fungi. Many of pathogenic fungi are naked in nature although they are eukaryotic. Candida species, Aspergillus species, Cryptococcus species, Histoplasma species are pathogenic in nature.

Fungal diseases have contributed to death and disability in humans, triggered global wildlife extinctions and population declines, devastated agricultural crops, and altered forest ecosystem dynamics.

The past two decades have seen an increasing number of virulent infectious diseases in natural populations and managed landscapes. In both animals and plants, an unprecedented number of fungal and fungal-like diseases have recently caused some of the most severe die-offs and extinctions ever witnessed in wild species, and are jeopardizing food security. Human activity is intensifying fungal disease dispersal by modifying natural environments and thus creating new opportunities for evolution. We argue that nascent fungal infections will cause increasing attrition of biodiversity, with wider implications for human and ecosystem health, unless steps are taken to tighten biosecurity worldwide.

Filamentous fungi are used by industry for manufacture of a large variety of useful products. The products include metabolites, enzymes and food. Fungal cells can grow at different environmental conditions and environmental diversity. The chemical and physical conditions used for fungal propagation which depends up on fungal genetics and biology will have a great impact on the capability of these cells to accumulate the desired product(s). Mevinolin, cyclosporine A, β-lactam antibiotics, pneumocandins, ergotamine, strobilurins, and mycophenolic acid are examples of revolutionary pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals that have a fungal origin in spite of the success of bioactive fungal metabolites as pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals and fungi remain s an essentially untapped source of medicines because only a small fraction of the vast fungal kingdom has been explored for bioactive metabolite production. However, recent advances in the genetics of microbial secondary metabolite biosynthesis, genomics, and metabolic engineering will play an ever-increasing role in facilitating fungal bioactive metabolites discovery.

Edible mushrooms are the fleshy fruit bodies of several species of macro-fungi. They can appear either below ground or above ground where they may be picked by hand. Edibility may be defined by criteria that include the absence of poisonous effects on humans and desirable taste and aroma. Mushrooms play extremely important roles in the ecosystem, and some are famously delicious. Some are also famously deadly. In recent years has focused on various immunological and anti-cancer properties of certain mushrooms, they also offer other potentially important health benefits, including antioxidants, anti-hypertensive and cholesterol-lowering properties, liver protection, as well as anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-viral and anti-microbial properties. These properties have attracted the interest of many pharmaceutical companies, which are viewing the medicinal mushroom as a rich source of innovative biomedical molecules. Mushrooms contain disease-busting polysaccharides, glycoproteins, ergosterols, triterpenoids, and immune-boosting chemicals. They can also be used to bolster a declining immune system during aging.