8 Coordination of Fungal Secondary Metabolism and Development

Fungi are ubiquitous lifeforms that colonize a wide range of diverse environments. Many of them have a saprophytic lifestyle and are principal decomposers of our ecosystem. Fungi play an important role in our food and pharmaceutical industries, but their appearance can also be harmful to us. They are responsible for many diseases in humans and animals, ranging from allergies to life-threatening intoxications and mycoses. The infection of plants and the contamination of crops lead to high economic losses and pose a threat to food supply and safety. Fungal developmental programs, including the formation of infection structures, are closely linked to the production of specific chemicals, called secondary metabolites. This chapter describes these interrelated processes and their regulation, including the genetic networks linking transcriptional to epigenetic control of gene expression, protein degradation machineries, and the autophagy membrane trafficking pathway.