Parasex Generates Phenotypic Diversity de Novo and Impacts Drug Resistance and Virulence in Candida albicans.

ABSTRACT: Candida albicans is a diploid fungus that is a frequent cause of mucosal and systemic infections in humans. This species exhibits an unusual parasexual cycle in which mating produces tetraploid cells that undergo a nonmeiotic program of concerted chromosome loss to return to a diploid or aneuploid state. In this work, we used a multipronged approach to examine the capacity of parasex to generate diversity in C. albicans First, we compared the phenotypic properties of 32 genotyped progeny and observed wide-ranging differences in fitness, filamentation, biofilm formation, and virulence. Strikingly, one parasexual isolate displayed increased virulence relative to parental strains using a Galleria mellonella model of infection, establishing that parasex has the potential t

SUBMITTER: Hirakawa MP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5676243 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature