Fungi as a model for expanding the understanding of dormancy across microbial life.

Fungal dormancy involves diverse structures with complex morphophysiological features that are comparable to bacterial dormant cells, highlighting shared survival strategies across microbes.

• Why it matters: Understanding fungal dormancy is crucial due to its ecological, medical, and industrial importance, yet it remains underexplored compared to bacterial dormancy, creating a knowledge gap.
• What they did: The review summarizes fungal structural diversity, developmental pathways, and resistance mechanisms, and discusses challenges in detecting dormant structures like sclerotia, based on research in geothermal environments.
• The result: Recognizing the diversity and parallels of dormant structures across microbes can lead to a unified framework for dormancy, improving insights into microbial survival, ecosystem resilience, and applied fields.