Fungal attack threatens global food supply, experts say | Fungi

A rapidly increasing fungal attack on the world’s most important crops is threatening the planet’s future food supply, scientists say and warn they are failing to address it. fungal pathogen It could lead to a “global health catastrophe”.

Fungi are already the biggest destroyers of crops. They are highly resilient and can ride the wind over long distances and feed on large fields of a single crop. Develops resistance to

Researchers say the climate crisis will increase temperatures, exacerbating the effects of fungal diseases. Fungal infections are steadily moving polewardSince the 1990s, fungal pathogens have migrated to high latitudes at a rate of about 7 km per year. wheat stem rust Infections normally found in the tropics have already been reported in England and Ireland.

Higher temperatures also encourage the emergence of new variants of fungal pathogens, while more extreme storms can spread spores farther, scientists say.

Professor Sarah Garr of the University of Exeter, UK, who co-authored the report, said the fungus recently came to the public’s attention with the hit. TV show The Last of Usfungi infect the human brain.

“While the plot is science fiction, it warns of a possible global health catastrophe caused by the rapid global spread of fungal infections. Here the immediate threat is zombies. No, it’s global hunger.”

Scientists said there is also a risk that global warming could make the fungus more heat-tolerant, hopping hosts and increasing the chances of infecting warm-blooded animals and humans.

Co-author Professor Eva Stukenbrock of the University of Kiel, Germany, said: We are already witnessing massive crop losses due to fungal infections that can support millions of people each year. This alarming trend may only be exacerbated by global warming. yeah. “

Warning issued at Article in the scientific journal Naturesaid the producers are already lost between 10% and 23% of the crop For fungal diseases. The five most important crops (rice, wheat, corn, soybeans, and potatoes) can lose food to hundreds of millions of people annually due to infection.fungi occupied the top six Included in recent lists of pests and pathogens with the greatest impact.

Fungi are incredibly resilient, the researchers say, remaining viable in soil for up to 40 years, and their airborne spores can travel between continents. “After tornadoes in America, you can see the spores have been sucked up and gone on long distance voyages,” Gurr said.

Fungicides are widely used but the pathogens are well equipped to rapidly evolve resistance to treatments that target only a single cellular process. Existing fungicides and conventional breeding for disease resistance are no longer enough, the researchers say.

One solution is planting seed mixtures that carry a range of genes that are resistant to fungal infection, rather than monocultures of a single strain. In 2022, about a quarter of wheat in Denmark was grown in this way. Technology may also help, the scientists say, with drones and artificial intelligence allowing earlier detection and control of outbreaks.

New pesticides are being developed, with a team at the University of Exeter recently discovering compounds that could lead to chemicals that target several biological processes within the fungi, making resistance much harder to develop. The approach has already been shown to be useful against fungi infecting wheat, rice, corn and bananas.

The researchers said fungal pathogen research was seriously underfunded, comparing the £550m allocated to Covid-19 research by the UK Research and Innovation council from 2020 to 2022 with the £24m for fungal crop research over the same period.

“If we don’t have enough to eat, malnutrition will kill us before we get anything like Covid-19,” Gurr said. “But our [research area] Absolutely penniless compared to every medical illness you can imagine. "