Exposure to pollutants such as pesticides is increasingly resistant to antibiotics and fungi to increase their ability to spread diseases, a study concluded led by researcher Cristina Silva Pereira Portuguese.
"We are talking about pollutants distributed in the atmosphere regardless of the place of emission, which are capable of traveling to remote areas," the researcher told the Lusa agency about the study published in the scientific journal Microbiome
Fungi are "capable of degrading compounds and contaminants to be used as an energy source, a process we call mineralization," said the scientist at the Institute of Chemical and Biological Technology António Xavier (ITQB in Oeiras), New University of Lisbon.
When they are subject to the action of pollutants such as pentachlorophenol (PCP), used in agricultural pesticides, fungal communities specialize and "change their way of functioning to survive the attack." There are "dramatic changes in metabolism" and fungi They become "more resistant to antifungals and antibiotics." The "chemical design" of pentachlorophenol is common to many herbicides and "there may be many other" chemical compounds that have the same effect.
This greater resistance joins the greater capacity that these fungal communities have to survive higher temperatures such as those derived from climate change.
To know what effects these contaminants would have on fungi, the international team coordinated by Cristina Silva Pereira first studied nature: she discovered that in a cork oak forest the PCP contaminant persisted in the soil and that the fungi were actively involved in the attempt to degrade it. Then he did laboratory studies, showing that contact with contaminants makes these fungi more pathogenic.
"These results are worrisome, since fungi are responsible for opportunistic infections that cause 1.5 to 2 million people worldwide each year, more than diseases such as malaria or tuberculosis." Increasing their pathogenicity means to be able to influence these numbers ", underlines Cristina Silva Pereira, quoted in a statement from the ITQB. "However, it is also an opportunity to learn more about how the ecosystem works and perceive how we can act to avoid threats."
"The course of scientific research will now effectively" prove that there is an increase in virulence, "Cristina Silva Pereira told Lusa, as" there are now spores [de fungos] everywhere "with human mobility.
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