Fungal Extracellular Vesicles: Past, Present and Future

Dear Colleagues,

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are structures released by cells from a remarkably broad range of organisms from all Kingdoms of life, as a way of regulating the release of diverse compounds to the extracellular environment. EVs vary in size, content and can come in different colours, as these dynamic structures are able to carry not only structural lipids and proteins, but also signalling molecules from different classes, nucleic acids and pigments. After being described in bacteria, protozoa and animals, the production and release of EVs was described in fungi in 2007, disproving the scepticism related to the challenges involved with the crossing of a complex polysaccharide layer, the fungal cell wall, by these fascinating lipid bilayered “virulence bags”, a phenomenon that is still poorly understood. After 15 years of research on fungal EVs, it is known that they are involved in cellular communication within and between fungal populations, but also with the host, to induce or suppress the immune response. Furthermore, due to the diversity of their cargo, fungal EVs have been described as potential platforms for biotechnological applications. Despite the growing data on fungal EVs, many questions regarding these structures remain unanswered and this Special Issue will bring to light the past, present and future related to this rapidly expanding field.

Dr. Daniel Zamith Miranda
Prof. Dr. Joshua D. Nosanchuk
Guest Editors

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• fungal extracellular vesicles
• cargo
• immunomodulatory
• host
• communication