Fungal physiology – a future perspective

Abstract

The study of fungal physiology is set to change dramatically in the next few years as highly scalable technologies are deployed allowing accurate measurement and identification of metabolites, proteins and transcripts within cells. The advent of next-generation DNA-sequencing technologies will also provide genome sequence information from large numbers of industrially relevant and pathogenic fungal species, and allow comparative genome analysis between strains and populations of fungi. When coupled with advances in gene functional analysis, protein–protein interaction studies, live cell imaging and mathematical modelling, this promises a step-change in our understanding of how fungal cells operate as integrated dynamic living systems.