Dating the Cryptococcus gattii Dispersal to the North American Pacific Northwest.

ABSTRACT: The emergence of Cryptococcus gattii, previously regarded as a predominantly tropical pathogen, in the temperate climate of the North American Pacific Northwest (PNW) in 1999 prompted several questions. The most prevalent among these was the timing of the introduction of this pathogen to this novel environment. Here, we infer tip-dated timing estimates for the three clonal C. gattii populations observed in the PNW, VGIIa, VGIIb, and VGIIc, based on whole-genome sequencing of 134 C. gattii isolates and using Bayesian evolutionary analysis by sampling trees (BEAST). We estimated the nucleotide substitution rate for each lineage (1.59 × 10^-8, 1.59 × 10^-8, and 2.70 × 10^-8, respectively) to be an order of magnitude higher than common neutral

SUBMITTER: Roe CC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5770541 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan-Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature