Molecular studies on zygomycetes fungi causing opportunistic infections

摘要

Zygomycosis is a group of opportunistic fungal infections caused by filamentous fungi belonging in the class Zygomycetes. Incidence of such infections shows an increasing tendency as a result of the widespread use of immunosuppressive therapy, intensive cancer chemotherapeutic regimens and broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents. High mortality rates, difficulties in their diagnosis and an intrinsic resistance to the most widely used antifungal drugs are characteristic features of zygomycoses. All these facts indicate that the development of new strategies to prevent and treat zygomycosis is urgently needed. This review intends to summarize the current state of the different molecular genetic studies on clinically important zygomycetes with a special attention to the most recent efforts to develop new molecular identification methods and to determine the possible virulence factors. Questions of the DNA-based identification as well as of the genetic manipulation techniques applied in zygomycetes will also be discussed.