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The Canadian Fungal Network 2021 Annual Meeting – Connecting fungal researchers across Canada


The Canadian Fungal Network (CanFunNet) was established in 2019 to promote fungal research in Canada by facilitating dialogue among scientists working across diverse sub-disciplines and institutions. The first CanFunNet conference was held virtually in July 2020, with an audience of 310 participants from 89 institutions across Canada, and 63 presenters representing all career stages. The second annual CanFunNet conference was held virtually in May 2021, with 339 participants from 15 countries (~90% from Canada), including 152 presenters. CanFunNet 21 was a joint virtual meeting with The Great Lakes Mycology Meeting (GLMM), an annual conference of graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, and other mycological researchers from Ontario and the surrounding region, established in 1981 by Brent and Michele Heath and David Malloch. The annual GLMM provides an excellent forum for students to give their first conference talk and a great opportunity for researchers young and old to hear new work across the breadth of mycology. It was exciting to bring these two meetings together for the first time in 2021 to provide an accessible and thought-stimulating forum, showcasing the diversity and excellence of Canadian mycological research. Topics ranged from medical mycology, ecology, conservation and citizen science, genetics and genomics, plant and forest pathology, lichenology and beyond. This conference provided an exciting opportunity for international audiences to connect with their Canadian colleagues. With this special collection, we provide a small snapshot of current fungal research in Canada. For more information on this new Canadian initiative, see our 2021 open access review ‘The Canadian Fungal Research Network: current challenges and future opportunities’ 

  • OPEN ACCESS
    Peptidases: promising antifungal targets of the human fungal pathogen, Cryptococcus neoformans
    FACETS • Vol. 7 • pp. 319 - 342
    Cryptococcus neoformans is a globally important fungal pathogen, primarily inflicting disease on immunocompromised individuals. The widespread use of antifungal agents in medicine and agriculture supports the development of antifungal resistance through evolution, and the emergence of new strains with intrinsic resistance drives the need for new therapeutics. For C. neoformans, the production of virulence factors, including extracellular peptidases (e.g., CnMpr-1 and May1) with mechanistic roles in tissue invasion and fungal survival, constitute approximately 2% of the fungal proteome and cover five classes of enzymes. Given their role in fungal virulence, peptidases represent promising targets for anti-virulence discovery in the development of new approaches against C. neoformans. Additionally, intracellular peptidases, which are involved in resistance mechanisms against current treatment options (e.g., azole drugs), as well as capsule biosynthesis and elaboration of virulence factors, present additional opportunities to combat the pathogen. In this review, we highlight key cryptococcal peptidases with defined or predicted roles in fungal virulence and assess sequence alignments against their human homologs. With this information, we define the feasibility of the select peptidases as “druggable” targets for inhibition, representing prospective therapeutic options against the deadly fungus.
  • OPEN ACCESS
    Temporal diversity patterns for fungi and mites associated with decaying Sporobolus pumilus (Spartina patens) in the Minas Basin, Nova Scotia
    FACETS • Vol. 7 • pp. 654 - 673
    Coastal salt marshes provide many ecosystem services; however, little is known of the biology of decomposer taxa in these systems. This study employed aboveground and belowground litterbags to characterize the fungal and mite communities associated with the dominant salt marsh grass, Sporobolus pumilus, in the Minas Basin, Nova Scotia. Decomposition rates of aboveground and belowground tissues and environmental variables were quantified to contextualize temporal patterns in community composition. Aboveground litterbag mass loss peaked in July and decreased consistently over succeeding months, which positively correlated with fungal richness. Fungal and mite richness displayed inverse relationships over time, with mites gradually increasing in diversity before peaking in November, suggesting the presence of a complex detrital network where mites and fungi respond to different and possibly unrelated environmental cues. This study offers a first look at temporal community dynamics of two neglected groups of decomposers associated with S. pumilus in Canada.
  • OPEN ACCESS
    Macrofungal conservation in Canada and target species for assessment: a starting point
    FACETS • Vol. 7 • pp. 448 - 463
    Despite the ecological importance of fungi, we still know little about their diversity in Canada. One of the largest hurdles to implementing fungal conservation initiatives is the lack of fungal distribution data. As anthropogenic impacts accelerate the speed of environmental change, it is imperative that we fill this major information gap, critical for fungal protection. To gain insight on the conservation status of Canadian macrofungi, we took advantage of the large and growing body of fungal biodiversity data from government research (Wild Species 2020), citizen science, trained independent mycologists, university, and museum biodiversity research. The majority of macrofungi are data deficient; we do not know their geographic distribution or habitat requirements, occurrence, or abundance in Canada. For mushrooms that fruit only a few days of the year and are often difficult to positively identify, there is a lot of work to overcome the uncertainty of distinguishing under-sampling from rarity. Our work stresses the importance of building a strong network of professional and amateur mycologists to develop resources, disseminate information to make educated decisions, and advance conservation actions. We found that several fungi can be prioritized; we present a short list for consideration for formal conservation assessment.
  • OPEN ACCESS
    Orbitides and free polyamines have similarly limited fungicidal activity against three common pathogens of flax in vitro
    FACETS • Vol. 7 • pp. 843 - 852
    Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lini and Septoria linicola are causes of fusarium wilt and pasmo in flax (Linum usitatissimum). Members of a third fungal genus, Alternaria spp., have also been found in fiber and linseed varieties of flax, and are a source of post-harvest spoilage and mycotoxins in a wide range of crops. We performed a microdilution assay and calculated the median effective concentration (EC50) to compare the potency of cyclolinopeptides (CLPs), two polyamines (spermidine and spermine), and the fungicide carbendazimin in the control of three fungi that have potential pathogenic activity (F. oxysporum, S. linicola, and Alternaria spp), of which the first two are particulary significant causes of disease in flax. For carbendazim, all EC50 values were <0.6 μg/mL. The observed EC50 ranged from 111 to 340 μg/mL for a mixture of six unique CLPs, 109 to 778 μg/mL for spermine, and 21 to 272 μg/mL for spermidine. Spermidine was most effective against Alternaria sp., with an EC50 of 21 μg/mL. The results presented here showed that polyamines and CLPs possess limited antifungal activities against several fungi, with spermidines the most effective naturally occurring compound tested. Our findings do not support the hypothesis that CLPs act as potent antifungals against the three species of pathogens tested.

Curators

Greg Thorn
Guest Editor
Allison Walker
Guest Editor
Emile Gluck-Thaler
Guest Editor
Alfredo Justo
Guest Editor
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