Mucormycoses are deadly invasive
infections caused by several fungal species belonging to the subphylum Mucoromycotina, order Mucorales. Hallmarks of
disease progression include angioinvasion and tissue
necrosis that aid in fungal dissemination through the blood stream, causing deeper
infections and resulting in poor penetration of
antifungal agents to the site of
infection. In the absence of surgical removal of the infected focus, antifungal
therapy alone is rarely curative. Even when surgical
debridement is combined with high-dose antifungal
therapy, the mortality associated with
mucormycoses is >50%. The unacceptably high mortality rate, limited options for
therapy and the extreme morbidity of highly disfiguring surgical
therapy provide a clear mandate to understand the molecular mechanisms that govern pathogenesis with the hopes of developing alternative strategies to treat and prevent
mucormycoses. In the absence of robust forward and reverse genetic systems available for this taxonomic group of fungi, unbiased next generation sequence (NGS)-based approaches have provided much needed insights into our understanding of many aspects of
Mucormycoses, including genome structure, drug resistance, diagnostic development, and fungus-host interactions. Here, we will discuss the specific contributions that NGS-based approaches have made to the field and discuss open questions that can be addressed using similar approaches.