Revisiting Old Questions and New Approaches to Investigate the Fungal Cell Wall Construction

Michael Blatzer (1) , Anne Beauvais (2) , Bernard Henrissat (3) , Jean-Paul Latgé (4)

1 Neuropathologie expérimentale / Experimental neuropathology
2 Département de Mycologie - Department of Mycology
3 AFMB - Architecture et fonction des macromolécules biologiques
4 IMBB-FORTH - Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas [Heraklion, Greece]

The beginning of our understanding of the cell wall construction came from the work of talented biochemists in the 70-80's. Then came the era of sequencing. Paradoxically, the accumulation of fungal genomes complicated rather than solved the mystery of cell wall construction, by revealing the involvement of a much higher number of proteins than originally thought. The situation has become even more complicated since it is now recognized that the cell wall is an organelle whose composition continuously evolves with the changes in the environment or with the age of the fungal cell. The use of new and sophisticated technologies to observe cell wall construction at an almost atomic scale should improve our knowledge of the cell wall construction. This essay will present some of the major and still unresolved questions to understand the fungal cell wall biosynthesis and some of these exciting futurist approaches.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Michael Blatzer, Anne Beauvais, Bernard Henrissat, Jean-Paul Latgé. Revisiting Old Questions and New Approaches to Investigate the Fungal Cell Wall Construction. The Fungal Cell Wall, 425, Springer International Publishing, pp.331-369, 2020, Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology, ⟨10.1007/82_2020_209⟩. ⟨hal-03508799⟩