Ploidy changes in human fungal pathogens: Going beyond sexual reproduction

Du, Han; Zheng, Qiushi; Bennett, Richard J.; Huang, Guanghua

doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1010954

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…In addition, this strategy assumes that all strains have the canonical ploidy of the species. Although the assumption may not be necessarily accurate in all cases, ploidy switches are rarely observed in such haploid species 91 and we have no accurate way to infer ploidy directly from the sequences.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent gene selection and drug resistance underscore clinical adaptation across Candida species

Schikora-Tamarit,

Gabaldón

2024

Nat Microbiol

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Understanding how microbial pathogens adapt to treatments, humans and clinical environments is key to infer mechanisms of virulence, transmission and drug resistance. This may help improve therapies and diagnostics for infections with a poor prognosis, such as those caused by fungal pathogens, including Candida. Here we analysed genomic variants across approximately 2,000 isolates from six Candida species (C. glabrata, C. auris, C. albicans, C. tropicalis, C. parapsilosis and C. orthopsilosis) and identified genes under recent selection, suggesting a highly complex clinical adaptation. These involve species-specific and convergently affected adaptive mechanisms, such as adhesion. Using convergence-based genome-wide association studies we identified known drivers of drug resistance alongside potentially novel players. Finally, our analyses reveal an important role of structural variants and suggest an unexpected involvement of (para)sexual recombination in the spread of resistance. Our results provide insights on how opportunistic pathogens adapt to human-related environments and unearth candidate genes that deserve future attention.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent gene selection and drug resistance underscore clinical adaptation across Candida species

Schikora-Tamarit,

Gabaldón

2024

Nat Microbiol

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“…Studies focusing on parasexual reproduction have revealed that various factors could contribute toward ploidy change including the metabolic state of a cell, the presence of certain chemicals such as sorbose, and most likely involve a nonmeiotic mode of ploidy reduction ( 127 , 128 , 142 – 144 ). Furthermore, exposure to in vivo stress could even drive obligate diploid C. albicans cells to reduce their ploidy and become haploid highlighting the role of environmental and host factors in ploidy change and maintenance ( 145 ).…”

Section: Variation In the Modes Of Sexual Reproductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the evolution of variation in sexual reproduction through the prism of eukaryotic microbes

Yadav

Sun

Heitman

2023

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Almost all eukaryotes undergo sexual reproduction to generate diversity and select for fitness in their population pools. Interestingly, the systems by which sex is defined are highly diverse and can even differ between evolutionarily closely related species. While the most commonly known form of sex determination involves males and females in animals, eukaryotic microbes can have as many as thousands of different mating types for the same species. Furthermore, some species have found alternatives to sexual reproduction and prefer to grow clonally and yet undergo infrequent facultative sexual reproduction. These organisms are mainly invertebrates and microbes, but several examples are also present among vertebrates suggesting that alternative modes of sexual reproduction evolved multiple times throughout evolution. In this review, we summarize the sex-determination modes and variants of sexual reproduction found across the eukaryotic tree of life and suggest that eukaryotic microbes provide unique opportunities to study these processes in detail. We propose that understanding variations in modes of sexual reproduction can serve as a foundation to study the evolution of sex and why and how it evolved in the first place.

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Genomic Innovation and Virulence Evolution in the Emerging Human Fungal Pathogen Candida auris

Gifford,

Rhodes,

Wilson

et al. 2024

The Mycota

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Ploidy changes in human fungal pathogens: Going beyond sexual reproduction

Cited by 5 publications

References 41 publications

Recent gene selection and drug resistance underscore clinical adaptation across Candida species

Recent gene selection and drug resistance underscore clinical adaptation across Candida species

On the evolution of variation in sexual reproduction through the prism of eukaryotic microbes

Genomic Innovation and Virulence Evolution in the Emerging Human Fungal Pathogen Candida auris

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