Pheromone independent unisexual development in Cryptococcus neoformans.

ABSTRACT: The fungus Cryptococcus neoformans can undergo a-α bisexual and unisexual reproduction. Completion of both sexual reproduction modes requires similar cellular differentiation processes and meiosis. Although bisexual reproduction generates equal number of a and α progeny and is far more efficient than unisexual reproduction under mating-inducing laboratory conditions, the α mating type dominates in nature. Population genetic studies suggest that unisexual reproduction by α isolates might have contributed to this sharply skewed distribution of the mating types. However, the predominance of the α mating type and the seemingly inefficient unisexual reproduction observed under laboratory conditions present a conundrum. Here, we discovered a previously unrecognized condition that promotes unisex

SUBMITTER: Gyawali R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5435349 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature