The research was just published in the journal Genetics and was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Working with the fungus Aspergillus nidulans, Momany found several years ago that septins are crucial to the survival of the organism. That discovery pointed toward methods of treating fungal diseases, which have dramatically increased in the past decade. Septins are the scaffolds that other parts of the fungal cell wall are built around. While there are more than 1.5 million species of fungi, only about 400 have been proved to be agents of disease in humans and animals.
All fungi come in one of two basic forms, molds or yeasts.
Molds grow with long, threadlike filaments, while yeasts are characterized by solitary cells that reproduce by budding. The genus Aspergillus consists of filamentous fungi that can cause disease depending on the condition of their host. People undergoing chemotherapy or those with diseases such as AIDS or tuberculosis are often susceptible to diseases caused by fungi. Worse, pathogenic fungi are becoming harder to kill, and the numbers of those with fungal disease in the U.S. have dramatically increased, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Momany's new research showed that the septins are not clustered in the A. nidulans genome but scattered throughout it.