Biodiversity of emerging pathogenic and invasive fungi in plants, animals and humans in Italy

Abstract

In the last 30 years, the spread of emerging and invasive fungal pathogens has had a profound impact on plants, animals and humans, causing crop losses and damaging their health with economic and social impact. Awareness of the biodiversity of these pathogens is essential for their detection, identification and control. In this article, their diversity in Italy is reviewed taking into consideration the international context. Fungal endophytes, important ecological agents whose lifestyle can be switched by stochastic events from beneficial/neutral to pathogenic, are included in this review.

Keywords:

• Emerging pathogenic fungi
• endophytes
• animals
• humans
• plants
• Italy

Acknowledgements

This research was partially supported by MIUR under grant PRIN 2008. The authors would like to thank Dr David Minter (UK) for his help with linguistic revision.