Discovery of Extant Sexual Cycles in Human Pathogenic Fungi and Their Roles in the Generation of Diversity and Virulence

The evolution of parasite genomes and the origins of parasitism

“…Among eukaryotes, this prediction is seemingly confirmed by the Microsporidia, whose genomes are denuded of normally essential biosynthetic pathways (reviewed in Corradi and Slamovits, 2011). However, microsporidians may yet prove to be exceptional and other taxa provide only mild and equivocal support for a general phenomenon (Bird et al 2014;Jackson 2014;Zarowiecki and Berriman, 2014).…”

“…In the final article, Weedall and Hall (2014) discuss the evidence from genome sequences for sexual reproduction in diverse parasite lineages, which hitherto was often assumed to be absent. Sex is proving to have an intimate relationship with virulence and host range in different pathogens (Bakkeren et al 2012;Bennett and Nielsen, 2012), and so the frequency of sexual reproduction in parasite populations is likely to impact on the evolution of host-parasite interactions, as well as disease epidemiology. Now that the first flush of parasite genome sequencing is complete it appears that parasite genomes are reduced to some extent relative to freeliving organisms.…”