Assessing the relationship between fungal pathogenicity and climate change and the risk of emergent pathogens in a changing climate

全球气候变化预计将增加真菌传染病的传播， 压力环境条件，如破纪录的高温和干旱。因为 病原真菌具有较强的抗逆能力，在环境胁迫条件下能大量繁殖 与其他非病原性真菌相比。本提案的目的是调查 真菌致病性和气候变化之间的联系具体来说，如果全球气候带来的压力耐受性 变化触发土壤真菌的致病性。中心假设是，暴露于慢性环境 压力，如热和干旱，有利于土壤真菌群落中病原真菌的增殖， 增强其抗逆性和致病性。这一假设的基本原理是， 这个项目，我们将确定机制，以更好地了解气候变化之间的关系， 和致病性。因此，这将使我们能够更好地规划潜在的真菌感染性疾病爆发， 全球气候变化下的疾病，制定应急计划和潜在的治疗方法。中央 假设将通过追求三个具体目标进行测试：1）评估气候造成的压力性慢性疾病 变化，如热和干旱，有利于土壤中的病原真菌超过非病原真菌; 2）确定是否 高温和干旱触发真菌中腐生性向病原体转化; 3）评估暴露于慢性 热和干旱引起真菌持续生理变化，包括增加的胁迫耐受性， 致病性我们将采用创新和多规模的方法来实现这些目标， 微生物学、气候变化和公共卫生的交叉。它包括使用传统的微生物 技术加上最近开发的高通量测序和生物信息学工具。这些将是 在物种和社区一级应用，以评估短期和长期反应。拟议研究 研究真菌如何应对和适应全球气候变化对保护环境至关重要。 了解和预测未来真菌疾病的爆发。这项工作的预期成果是获得 全面了解土壤真菌群落在长期高温下发生的变化 和干旱。此外，为了更好地了解压力环境下的真菌资源投资， 条件下，包括生理反应潜在的致病性在野生真菌群落在多个 规模该项目的结果将立即产生积极的影响，因为它将提供知识， 真菌暴露于压力条件下时所经历的致病机制。因此，我的工作将：1） 提供基础知识，以模拟和预测未来的真菌疾病爆发，2）为政策提供信息 气候变化对土壤真菌群落的潜在公共卫生威胁。总之， 实现我的研究计划的长期目标，这是为了帮助更好地规划，以确保我们的健康， 气候变化下的社会。

Global climate change is projected to increase the spread of fungal infectious diseases due to persistent stressful environmental conditions, such as record-breaking hot temperatures and droughts. Because pathogenic fungi are good at tolerating stress, they may thrive under environmental stressful conditions compared to other non-pathogenic fungi. The objective of this proposal is to investigate the relationship between fungal pathogenicity and climate change. Specifically, if stress-tolerance brought by global climate change triggers pathogenicity in soil fungi. The central hypothesis is that exposure to chronic environmental stressors, such as heat and drought, favors the proliferation of pathogenic fungi in soil fungal communities and enhances their stress-tolerance and pathogenicity. The rationale of this hypothesis is that upon completion of this project, we will have identified mechanisms to better understand the relationship between climate change and pathogenicity. Consequently, this will allow us to better plan for potential outbreaks of fungal infectious diseases under global climate change, develop contingency plans, and potential treatments. The central hypothesis will be tested by pursuing three specific aims: 1) Assess if stressful chronic conditions from climate change, such as heat and drought, favor pathogenic fungi over non-pathogenic fungi in soils; 2) Determine if heat and drought trigger saprotroph-to-pathogen transformations in fungi; 3) Evaluate if exposure to chronic heat and drought cause persistent physiological changes in fungi including increased stress-tolerance and pathogenicity. We will pursue these aims using an innovative and multi-scale approach which lies at the intersection of microbiology, climate change, and public health. It includes the use of traditional microbiological techniques coupled with recently developed high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatic tools. These will be applied at the species and community level to assess short- and long-term responses. The proposed research is significant because investigating how fungi are responding and adjusting to global climate change is vital for understanding and predicting future fungal disease outbreaks. The expected outcome of this work is to obtain comprehensive knowledge of the changes the soil fungal community undergoes when exposed to chronic heat and drought. In addition, to better understand fungal resource investment under stressful environmental conditions, including physiological responses underlying pathogenicity in wild fungal communities at multiple scale. The results of this project will have a positive impact immediately because it will provide knowledge into pathogenicity mechanisms that fungi undergo when exposed to stressful conditions. Therefore, my work will: 1) provide foundational knowledge to model and predict future fungal disease outbreaks and 2) inform policy makers on the public health threat potential that climate change has on soil fungal communities. Altogether, fulfilling a long term-goal of my research program which is to help better plan to ensure the health of our society under a changing climate.