Virulence attributes and hyphal growth of C. neoformans are quantitative traits and the MATalpha allele enhances filamentation.

ABSTRACT: Cryptococcus neoformans is a fungal human pathogen with a bipolar mating system. It undergoes a dimorphic transition from a unicellular yeast to hyphal filamentous growth during mating and monokaryotic fruiting. The traditional sexual cycle that leads to the production of infectious basidiospores involves cells of both alpha and a mating type. Monokaryotic fruiting is a modified form of sexual reproduction that involves cells of the same mating type, most commonly alpha, which is the predominant mating type in both the environment and clinical isolates. However, some a isolates can also undergo monokaryotic fruiting. To determine whether mating type and other genetic loci contribute to the differences in fruiting observed between alpha and a cells, we applied quantitative trait loci (QTL)

SUBMITTER: Lin X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1636697 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature