Blogging about science

OK. It has been ages since I posted last. I just saw this article and though it was a good place to start. In the fungal pathogen world, there is a lot of debate about "what makes a pathogen" - basically, many of the human fungal pathogens out there are considered "opportunists" in that in a normal human host they are not able to cause disease. Well at least rarely are they a problem in healthy people. MFF (my fav fungus) Coccidioides is a bit more of a bear in that respect- it really does infect and kill healthy people. But a bit of an outlier.

This article reviews what is known about genomic differences between a bread mold and a pathogen. Really, there is not that much difference (and never mind that occasionally the bread mold WILL cause disease) but there are some trends that pop out. The ability to: stick to surfaces, be resistant to anti-fungal drugs, and basically be flexible- in your food source, your genetic make up and your morphology.

Another nice aspect is that the article is open source! Devour at will!