To Sense or Die: Mechanisms of Temperature Sensing in Fungal Pathogens

Temperature is a ubiquitous environmental variable that can profoundly influence the physiology of living cells as it changes over time and space. All organisms have devised sophisticated mechanisms to sense and respond to changing temperature. Complex mammals, elegant worms, or pathogens struggling for survival in their host, each have systems allowing them to persist and thrive in the face of thermal fluctuation. The ability to grow at 37 degrees C is essential for virulence in a mammalian host, with further increases in temperature in the form of fever being a prevalent response to pathogen invasion. An understanding of how pathogens sense temperature is imperative for appreciating mechanisms of virulence. This review will dissect the mechanisms fungal pathogens use to sense temperature.