About
MARDy (Mycology Antifungal Resistance Database) is a freely accessible, expertly curated resource cataloguing genetic mechanisms of antifungal resistance across human, animal, and plant-infecting fungi. It integrates detailed records of amino acid substitutions, tandem repeat sequences, and genome ploidy variations linked to resistance phenotypes. Integrated with BLAST functionality, MARDy enables users to query by organism, gene, locus, or drug-and retrieve comprehensive tabular and downloadable results, complete with literature citations. Developed and maintained by Dr. Rhys Farrer (CMM, University of Exeter) and Dr. Johanna Rhodes (School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham), MARDy supports community contributions via the contact form and seeks to regularly incorporate new data. MARDy empowers clinicians, researchers, and agricultural scientists in understanding, monitoring, and combating the growing threat of antifungal resistance.
MARDy currently contains data from 413 publications, with 92 species, 212 genes, and 187 drugs represented.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Who are the team?
Rhys Farrer: Senior Lecturer, University of Exeter. Researcher and web development.
Johanna Rhodes: Assistant Professor, University of Birmingham. Researcher and data curation.
Joe Webber: Director of Engineering at Good Growth. Web development.
Logo & banner designed by Emily Green from Science Graphic Design.
2. Does that mutation really confer resistance?
The short answer: a mutation in a relevant drug resistance gene may have something to do with resistance.
The long answer: MARDy holds references to amino acid substitutions and ploidy variation that are present in isolates demonstrating the corresponding MIC breakpoint for a particular drug (according to the CLSI Subcommittee for Antifungal Testing). Some of the literature reports the precise amino acid substitution combinations, whilst others only list identified changes against a reference genome. We have supplied both, along with the corresponding reference.
3. How are the protein and DNA sequences chosen?
MARDy links each entry to a representative gene and protein sequence to support searching, BLAST, mutation plotting, and structure views. We aim to select accurate reference sequences for the reported gene/protein. However, these sequences may not always come from the exact isolate used in the original publication. We recommend checking the original paper for isolate-specific context where needed.
4. What is included in the BLAST databases?
The BLAST page searches curated databases currently containing 325 proteins and 250 genes.
5. Where do the structures come from?
Where available, wild-type structures (PDB) were downloaded from UniProtKB. Where no experimental structure was available, models were generated using the AlphaFold Server. AlphaFold model0 CIF files were converted to PDB using the Gemmi Python library. Mutant structures were generated using the PyMOL mutagenesis wizard.
6. How does the mutation plot work, and what cannot be plotted?
The mutation plot visualises mutation records along a selected protein sequence and reports entries that cannot be plotted. This can happen if an entry does not represent a valid amino acid substitution, if the expected residue position cannot be reconciled with the selected reference sequence, or if the record reflects a different resistance mechanism such as overexpression, aneuploidy, or promoter tandem repeats. The plot reports the number of database records in the current selection, and clicking a bar will take you to the relevant structure page when available.
7. Something went wrong! What do I do?
We have tried to ensure that MARDy remains bug-free. However, it is inevitable that some bugs may creep in during the initial release phase, or subsequent revisions. If you encounter a problem or feature that is not addressed in the comments below, please contact a member of the team by the contact form found in the links.
8. How do I cite MARDy
MARDy v1.0 was published in 2018 (https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/bty321). MARDy v2.0 will be submitted to the preprint server biorxiv and for peer-review shortly, but in the meantime, please reference the webpage.
