Dr Brian Shaw, Texas AgriLife research plant pathologist, photographed growing Aspergillus nidulans – a common lab fungus – every 30 seconds for six hours to monitor how fungal cells grow.  He found the cells enlarge both by exocytosis – the outward flow of growth material – and endocytosis, an inward flow of material. He calls this a revolutionary concept.

Fungi are made of thread-like cells, or hypha, which magnified look like the outline of a blimp.  A cell’s growth is confined to the apex or end of the hypha cell.  “We think the hypha is recycling material,” Shaw said, “It is growing outward toward a marker at the cell apex, but is also recycling that marker inward.  We call this the apical recycling model.”

Shaw says that we are in an all-out war with pathogenic fungi, as around 70% of the major disease-causing organisms are fungi.  “With more research we can find new ways to compete with them,” he said.

Fungi are often parasites, meaning they latch onto a plant or animal to live.  Shaw, and other researchers, are working towards finding ways of eliminating the growth of fungus without affecting the host.  Although Aspergillus nidulans is not a pathogen, Shaw hopes to translate his research to disease-causing fungi in order to learn how to stop their harmful growth on plants and animals.

Shaw believes it is the balance between exocytosis and endocyctosis that results in growth of fungi and cell shape, and that by understanding how they grow, researchers can find better ways to stop or cure fungal diseases.