Fungal pathogens pose an on-going and serious threat for poikilotherms and homeotherms, and can cause a broad spectrum of diseases ranging from innocuous to life-threatening. In addition, long-term exposure to some mycotoxigenic moulds can lead to mycotoxicoses in human and animals. Given the expanding population of immune compromised hosts, the list of fungal opportunists grows longer every year. Moreover, antifungal resistance, drug-related toxicity and our limited arsenal of antifungals have exacerbated the situation. To address these problems, strategies such as the identification of novel targets, use of the structure-activity relationship in rational drug design, development of new formulations, modification of existing antifungals to combat resistance, and bioavailability enhancement are called for. For the reader’s convenience, this book has been divided into three sections. The first six chapters of Section I provide a timely review of mycoses, from endemic to cosmopolitan and from generalized to specific, while both chapters of Section II focus on risks associated with mycotoxins. In closing, the two chapters of Section III describe potential antifungal leads and drug candidates based on phytochemicals and coumarin scaffold.

Pathogenic fungi are widely distributed and can infect many organisms, particularly humans, but also other vertebrates and insects. Due to a growing number of fungal infections, there is an increasing need to understand the interaction of pathogenic fungi with their hosts. This second completely updated and revised edition of Volume VI of The Mycota consists of state of the art reviews written by experts in the field, covering three major areas of this rapidly developing field. In the first part the current understanding of pathogenic fungi and the physiological reactions relevant for the pathogen - host interaction are elucidated. The second part describes novel technologies for the identification of proteins, virulence factors and mechanisms central to the host - pathogen interaction. The third part deals with the characterization of the host response towards pathogenic fungi and addresses timely clinical aspects.