課程資訊

The Fungi are an ancient group of microbes – they appeared at least 1 billion years ago (Loron et al, 2019) – that comprise an incredible diversity of organisms, with recent estimates pointing to the existence of more than 6 million fungal species (Baldrian et al, 2021). Fungi occupy virtually all ecological niches of the world, even inhospitable environments (Peay et al, 2016; Cantrell et al, 2011). Many of these fungi play an indispensable role in keeping the balance of our planet’s nutrient cycling due to their major service as decomposers and recyclers, particularly by establishing beneficial interactions with plants and other organisms in soil food webs (Watkinson et al, 2015; Moore et al, 2021). In addition, various fungal species have been co-opted for biotechnology and play an important role in a bio-based circular economy (Meyer et al, 2020). On the flip side of the coin, fungal pathogens pose serious medical, economic and ecological challenges to a vast number of humans, animals and plants (Fisher et al, 2020). In this context, fungal infections, which have been somewhat neglected for too many years, have been dubbed as ‘hidden killers’ (Brown et al, 2012). Therapeutic options for the treatment of invasive fungal infections are quite limited when compared with those available to treat bacterial or viral infections, and while antifungal treatments do exist, their success is frequently hindered by the occurrence of drug resistance (Fisher et al, 2018). The course Biology and Genetics of Fungi will be divided in five major sections, which, respectively, will elaborate on: 1) the evolutionary origins and biodiversity of fungi, and the basic principles of the biological lifestyles of fungi, including aspects of molecular biology, genetics and morphology of the fungal cell; 2) the interactions – symbiotic or pathogenic – between fungi and plants, animals and viruses; 3) the impact of human fungal infections and therapeutic options; 4) the methods and tools to perform basic comparisons between fungal model species (this section includes bioinformatics and simple laboratory classes); and 5) the utilization of fungi as instruments to advance modern biotechnology.


英授(Taught in English)
課程大綱(Course Outline)