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To Sense or Die: Mechanisms of Temperature Sensing in Fungal Pathogens

  • Translational Research (R Wheeler, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Temperature is a ubiquitous environmental variable that can profoundly influence the physiology of living cells as it changes over time and space. All organisms have devised sophisticated mechanisms to sense and respond to changing temperature. Complex mammals, elegant worms, or pathogens struggling for survival in their host, each have systems allowing them to persist and thrive in the face of thermal fluctuation. The ability to grow at 37 °C is essential for virulence in a mammalian host, with further increases in temperature in the form of fever being a prevalent response to pathogen invasion. An understanding of how pathogens sense temperature is imperative for appreciating mechanisms of virulence. This review will dissect the mechanisms fungal pathogens use to sense temperature.

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Acknowledgments

MDL is supported by a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship (Wellcome Trust 096072), and LEC is supported by a Canada Research Chair in Microbial Genomics and Infectious Disease, by a Ministry of Research and Innovation Early Researcher Award, by Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council Discovery Grant # 355965, and by Canadian Institutes of Health Research Grants MOP-86452 and MOP-119520.

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Conflict of Interest

MD Leach declares no conflict of interest.

LE Cowen declares no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aberdeen Fungal Group, School of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Institute of Medical Sciences, Foresterhill, Aberdeen, AB25 2ZD, UK

    Michelle D. Leach

  2. Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, 1 King’s College Circle, Medical Sciences Building, Room 4368, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1A8, Canada

    Michelle D. Leach & Leah E. Cowen

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  1. Michelle D. Leach
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  2. Leah E. Cowen
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Correspondence to Leah E. Cowen.

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Leach, M.D., Cowen, L.E. To Sense or Die: Mechanisms of Temperature Sensing in Fungal Pathogens. Curr Fungal Infect Rep 8, 185–191 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12281-014-0182-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12281-014-0182-1

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