Journal of Labor and Childbirth

Adaptation In Fungi:

 Directed changes in pathogenicity, acquired ability to utilize organic compounds. and increased tolerance to toxic materials. The common denominator of all these processes is the acquisition of a new function by continued exposure to a specific factor introduced into the environment. In addition to its intrinsic scientific value, adaptation has considerable practical importance. There are many reports that the virulence of fungi may be profoundly changed by passage through living host-plants. By this method. relatively weak races of parasitic fungi supposedly could adapt themselves to previously resistant or immune hosts and become destructive pathogens; even saprophytic fungi could gradually be educated to become active parasites if given the proper stimulus. Obviously. if fungi could be . educated readily to attack resistant varieties of crop plants, breeding for disease-resistance would be futile. The industrial mycologist who searches for cheap energy sources in fermentations and vitamin or antibiotic productions frequently has found adaptation to a particular substrate economical in time and labor. Screening procedures for fungicides, based on rates of growth in the presence of the toxicant, are subject to serious error if adaptation is ignored. It is recognized that the observed behavior may be attributed either to the selection of variants from mixed cultural populations or to a temporary or reversible change not involving alteration in the gene complement. Despite the fundamental difference in the nature of these two processes. few investigators distinguish between them. perhaps in part because of experimental difficulties. Since selection is a distinct concept already established, with genetical connotations. in other biological sciences it is logical to apply the term adaptation only to temporary changes not involving alteration in gene complement.   

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