Low effective dispersal of asexual genotypes in heterogeneous landscapes by the endemic pathogen Penicillium marneffei.

ABSTRACT: Long-distance dispersal in microbial eukaryotes has been shown to result in the establishment of populations on continental and global scales. Such "ubiquitous dispersal" has been claimed to be a general feature of microbial eukaryotes, homogenising populations over large scales. However, the unprecedented sampling of opportunistic infectious pathogens created by the global AIDS pandemic has revealed that a number of important species exhibit geographic endemicity despite long-distance migration via aerially dispersed spores. One mechanism that might tend to drive such endemicity in the face of aerial dispersal is the evolution of niche-adapted genotypes when sexual reproduction is rare. Dispersal of such asexual physiological "species" will be restricted when natural habitats are heteroge

SUBMITTER: Fisher MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1266309 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature