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Good evening, thank you all for coming, today I am going to present seminar with the title: “Possible effects of fungal-bacterial interaction on antifungal susceptibility and virulence”. Introduction: Historically, bacteria and fungi have been studied separately, overlooking the fact that, in many environments, bacteria and fungi coexist and interact with each other, forming dynamic co-evolving communities. In recent years, research in this area has revealed that fungi and bacteria often form physically and metabolically interdependent consortia that harbour properties distinct from those of their individual components. The microbial interactions are ubiquitous and diverse. They have important implications in diverse fields, including biotechnology, food processing, agriculture, environmental protection, and plant and animal nutrition and pathology. ------- Interactions between the two populations are classified according to whether one or both populations are benefited or are negatively affected by the associationship. These interactions are usually grouped into positive interactions (mutualism, syntropism and commensalism) and negative interactions (predation, parasitism, competition). These interactions are possible by physical interactions- direct cell-cell contact, chemical interaction through secretion of small molecules that are often involved in quorum sensing, and alteration of host immune response increasing the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines that result in end-organ damage. -------- One of the most particular microbial interactions are endosymbiosis relationships. Endosymbiosis can be a mutualistic, parasitic or commensal symbiosis in which one symbiont lives inside the body of another organism. This type of interaction is widespread in nature. The most studied examples of endosymbiosis are insect-bacteria, mycorrhiza-plant and algae of the species Chlorella and ciliate protist Paramecium bursaria. ----- In our study, we are interested in symbiosis between fungi and bacteria. In fungi, few examples of endosymbiosis are known, the most typical being arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and bacteria such as 'Candidatus Glomeribacter gigasporarum', Mortierella elongata with Mycoavidus cysteinexigens, and Rhizopus microsporus with Betaproteobacteria such as Burkholderia species and Ralstonia species. The Rhizopus microsporus-Burkholderia mutualism has become a model for understanding fungal-bacterial symbioses because it can be experimentally manipulated, hosts can be cured of symbionts, and partners can be separated and reassembled back into a functional symbiosis. ------- Rhizopus microsporus is a soil saprotroph responsible for food spoilage and is considered a pathogen for immunocompromised plants and humans. In the figure it can see the bacteria inside the hyphae. From this association with the bacterium, a potent phytotoxin, rhizoxin, is produced, which effectively stops rice plant cell division, causing rice seedling blight. ------ It is well known that in many parts of human body, the microbiota consists of both bacteria and fungi. Any disruption of this microbiota leads to colonization or expansion of pathogenic fungi/bacteria. On the other hand, several mixed infections have been reported in the last. For example, in vulvovaginal candidiasis infections, Escherichia coli bacteria have been shown to enhance the virulence factors of Candida albicans, the cause of vulvovaginal candidiasis, by increasing dual bacterial/fungal biofilm formation and increasing susceptibility to antifungals. Another example is the mixed infections with both P. aeruginosa and C. albicans in chronic lung infections described in many studies. In this case, the presence of the fungus enhances the production of bacterial virulence factors such as phenazins ----- These types of infections are more likely to cause therapeutic failure due to increased resistance and a higher pathogenicity, increasing lethality. However, the health impact of the presence of endosymbionts is unknown. Recent studies have analysed the impact of endosymbiosis.