This treatise is focused on early aspects of fungal pathogenesis in plant and animal hosts. Our aim in choosing the topics and contributors was to demonstrate common approaches to studies of fungal-plant and fungal-animal interactions, particularly at the biochemical and molecular Ievels. For example, the initial events of adh«sion of fungal spores to the exposed surface tissues of the host are essential for subsequent invasion of the plant or animal and establishment of pathogenesis. A point of consensus among investigators who have directed their attention to such events in plants, insects, and vertebrates isthat spore adhesion to the host cuticle or epithelium is more than a simple binding event. lt is a complex and potentially pivotal process in fungal-plant interactions which "may involve the secretion of ftuids that prepare the infection court for the development of morphological stages of the germling" and subsequent invasion of the host (Nicholson and Epstein, Chapter 1). The attachment of the fungal propagule to the arthropod cuticle is also "mediated by the chemical components present on the outer layer of the spore wall and the epicuticle . . . . Initial attachment may be reinforced further by either the active secretion of adhesive materials or the modification of spore wall materiallocated at the [fungal spore arthropod] cuticle interface (Boucias and Pendland, Chapter 5).

Inhalt
I. Spore Attachment and Invasion.- 1. Adhesion of Fungi to the Plant Surface: Prerequisite for Pathogenesis.- 2. Signaling for Infection Structure Formation in Fungi.- 3. The Plant Cell Wall as a Barrier to Fungal Invasion.- 4. Rust Basidiospore Germlings and Disease Initiation.- 5. Attachment of Mycopathogens to Cuticle: The Initial Event of Mycoses in Arthropod Hosts.- 6. The Fate of Fungal Spores in the Insect Gut.- 7. Candida Blastospore Adhesion, Association, and Invasion of the Gastrointestinal Tract of Vertebrates.- 8. Infectious Propagules of Dermatophytes.- II. Fungal Spore Products and Pathogenesis.- 9. Melanin Biosynthesis: Prerequisite for Successful Invasion of the Plant Host by Appressoria of Colletotrichum and Pyricularia.- 10. The Plant Cuticle: A Barrier to Be Overcome by Fungal Plant Pathogens.- 11. Appearance of Pathogen-Related Proteins in Plant Hosts: Relationships between Compatible and Incompatible Interactions.- 12. The Role of Cuticle-Degrading Enzymes in Fungal Pathogenesis in Insects.- 13. Potential for Penetration of Passive Barriers to Fungal Invasion in Humans.- 14. Dihydroxynaphthalene (DHN) Melanin and Its Relationship with Virulence in the Early Stages of Phaeohyphomycosis.- III. Host Response to Early Fungal Invasion.- 15. Invasion of Plants by Powdery Mildew Fungi, and Cellular Mechanisms of Resistance.- 16. Induced Systemic Resistance in Plants.- 17. The Plant Membrane and Its Response to Disease.- 18. The Fungal Spore: Reservoir of Allergens.- 19. Conidia of Coccidioides immitis: Their Significance in Disease Initiation.- 20. Cell-Mediated Host Response to Fungal Aggression.- 21. Suppression of Phagocytic Cell Responses by Conidia and Conidial Products of Aspergillus fumigatus.- IV. Molecular Aspects of Disease Initiation.- 22. Molecular Approaches to the Analysis of Pathogenicity Genes from Fungi Causing Plant Disease.- 23. Current Status of the Molecular Basis of Candida Pathogenicity.- Taxonomic Index.