Characterizing extracellular vesicles of human fungal pathogens

Abstract

Since their discovery in 2007, there has been growing awareness of the importance of fungal extracellular vesicles (EVs) for fungal physiology, host–pathogen interactions and virulence. Fungal EVs are nanostructures comprising bilayered membranes and molecules of various types that participate in several pathophysiological processes in fungal biology, including secretion, cellular communication, immunopathogenesis and drug resistance. However, many questions remain regarding the classification of EVs, their cellular origin, passage across the cell wall, experimental models for functional and compositional analyses, production in vitro and in vivo and biomarkers for EVs. Here, we discuss gaps in the literature of fungal EVs and identify key questions for the field. We present the history of fungal EV discovery, discuss five major unanswered questions in fungal EV biology and provide future perspectives for fungal EV research. We primarily focus our discussion on human fungal pathogens, but also extend it to include knowledge of other fungi, such as plant pathogens. With this Perspective we hope to stimulate new approaches and expand studies to understand the biology of fungal EVs. In this Perspective, Rodrigues et al. discuss the discovery of fungal extracellular vesicles, key unanswered questions in the field and future research directions.