Unisexual and heterosexual meiotic reproduction generate aneuploidy and phenotypic diversity de novo in the yeast Cryptococcus neoformans.

ABSTRACT: Aneuploidy is known to be deleterious and underlies several common human diseases, including cancer and genetic disorders such as trisomy 21 in Down's syndrome. In contrast, aneuploidy can also be advantageous and in fungi confers antifungal drug resistance and enables rapid adaptive evolution. We report here that sexual reproduction generates phenotypic and genotypic diversity in the human pathogenic yeast Cryptococcus neoformans, which is globally distributed and commonly infects individuals with compromised immunity, such as HIV/AIDS patients, causing life-threatening meningoencephalitis. C. neoformans has a defined a-α opposite sexual cycle; however, >99% of isolates are of the α mating type. Interestingly, α cells can undergo α-α unisexual reproduction, even involving genotypically id

SUBMITTER: Ni M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3769227 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature