Genetic and Genomic Analyses Reveal Boundaries between Species Closely Related to Cryptococcus Pathogens.

ABSTRACT: Speciation is a central mechanism of biological diversification. While speciation is well studied in plants and animals, in comparison, relatively little is known about speciation in fungi. One fungal model is the Cryptococcus genus, which is best known for the pathogenic Cryptococcus neoformans/Cryptococcus gattii species complex that causes >200,000 new human infections annually. Elucidation of how these species evolved into important human-pathogenic species remains challenging and can be advanced by studying the most closely related nonpathogenic species, Cryptococcus amylolentus and Tsuchiyaea wingfieldii However, these species have only four known isolates, and available data were insufficient to determine species boundaries within this group. By an

SUBMITTER: Passer AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6561019 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature