Patterns of Genomic Variation in the Opportunistic Pathogen Candida glabrata Suggest the Existence of Mating and a Secondary Association with Humans.

ABSTRACT: Candida glabrata is an opportunistic fungal pathogen that ranks as the second most common cause of systemic candidiasis. Despite its genus name, this yeast is more closely related to the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae than to other Candida pathogens, and hence its ability to infect humans is thought to have emerged independently. Moreover, C. glabrata has all the necessary genes to undergo a sexual cycle but is considered an asexual organism due to the lack of direct evidence of sexual reproduction. To reconstruct the recent evolution of this pathogen and find footprints of sexual reproduction, we assessed genomic and phenotypic variation across 33 globally distributed C. glabrata isolates. We cataloged extensive copy-number variation, which particularly affects genes encoding cell-w

SUBMITTER: Carrete L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5772174 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature