Genomic and Phenotypic Trait Variation of the Opportunistic Human Pathogen Aspergillus flavus and Its Close Relatives.

ABSTRACT: Fungal diseases affect millions of humans annually, yet fungal pathogens remain understudied. The mold Aspergillus flavus can cause both aspergillosis and fungal keratitis infections, but closely related species are not considered clinically relevant. To study the evolution of A. flavus pathogenicity, we examined genomic and phenotypic traits of two strains of A. flavus and three closely related species, Aspergillus arachidicola (two strains), Aspergillus parasiticus (two strains), and Aspergillus nomiae (one strain). We identified >3,000 orthologous proteins unique to A. flavus, including seven biosynthetic gene clusters present in A. flavus strains and absent in the three nonpathogens. We characterized secondary metabolite production for all seven strains under two clinically relevant co

SUBMITTER: Hatmaker EA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9769809 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature