ABSTRACT
In the last decade there has been a vast accumulation of information on the population structure and epidemiology of fungi pathogenic to human and other animals. This increase is due both to the rising incidence of mycotic diseases and to the increasing availability of strain-typing techniques. As reviewed in Chap. 12, there are numerous applications of these methods to analyzing the similarity among individual strains (1-10). Equally important are studies of the population structure of medically important fungi. Understanding the population dynamics of a pathogenic fungus will clarify epidemiological trends and assist researchers in the selection of appropriate strains in the quest for virulence factors and target molecules for novel antifungal drugs, vaccines, or diagnostic tests.
