General Properties of Fungal Pathogens

Abstract

Traditionally, fungi, because they have cell walls and are usually non-motile and because they generate spores as a way of reproducing, were placed in the plant kingdom. In 1969 Whittaker devised a five-kingdom system establishing a separate kingdom for the fungi as well as for plants, animals, algae and protozoa, and bacteria (Hawksworth et al., 1983). Accordingly, in this chapter the fungi will be treated as members of a distinct kingdom. It is interesting to note that results from recent studies using biochemical, ultrastructural, and nucleotide and protein sequencing methods indicate that animals and fungi are actually sister groups, while plants belong to a different evolutionary lineage. In fact, animals and true fungi share several characteristics, such as the production and use of chitin, the use of glycogen rather than starch for food storage, and the use of common precursors and synthetic pathways that do not exist among members of the plant kingdom (Baldauf and Palmer, 1993).

“He found the mold, Penicillium, to be ‘exquisitely beautiful’ and observed that in every case where the mold was thick and coherent, the bacteria died, or became dormant, and fell to the bottom of the sediment. ”

...John tyndall, 1877, describing the beneficial metabolites of Penicillium

“The bewitched were the children and young women who were thought to have the symptoms of diabolical possession but which most likely were those of ergot poisoning. ”

...Kenneth Kiple, 1997, describing the Salem “witches” tried in 1692. Their “symptoms” were probably caused by the toxins produced by the ergot fungus Claviceps purpurea, rather than “demonic possession.”