The conservation of IAP-like proteins in fungi, and their potential role in fungal programmed cell death

•Inhibitors of apoptosis proteins (IAPs) regulate a number of processes, including cellular death, development, organogenesis, immune system maturation, host-pathogen interactions.•IAP proteins are conserved in most fungal genomes.•The context within which fungal IAPs operate remains largely unknown.•Fungal IAPs regulate various fungal biological processes including cell death.•Targeting fungal IAPs could offer promising therapeutic solutions. Programmed cell death (PCD) is a tightly regulated process which is required for survival and proper development of all cellular life. Despite this ubiquity, the precise molecular underpinnings of PCD have been primarily characterized in animals. Attempts to expand our understanding of this process in fungi have proven difficult as core regulators of animal PCD are apparently absent in fungal genomes, with the notable exception of a class of proteins referred to as inhibitors of apoptosis proteins (IAPs). These proteins are characterized by the conservation of a distinct Baculovirus IAP Repeat (BIR) domain and animal IAPs are known to regulate a number of processes, including cellular death, development, organogenesis, immune system maturation, host-pathogen interactions and more. IAP homologs are broadly conserved throughout the fungal kingdom, but our understanding of both their mechanism and role in fungal development/virulence is still unclear. In this review, we provide a broad and comparative overview of IAP function across taxa, with a particular focus on fungal processes regulated by IAPs. Furthermore, their putative modes of action in the absence of canonical interactors will be discussed.