ArticlePLoS pathogens2009
Diploids in the Cryptococcus neoformans serotype A population homozygous for the alpha mating type originate via unisexual mating.
Article in PLoS pathogens, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 84 papers.
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Who cites it
84 citing papers in PubMed, 123 citations in OpenAlex.
- Low diversity Cryptococcus neoformans variety grubii multilocus sequence types from Thailand are consistent with an ancestral African origin.PLoS pathogens · 2011Trial
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- Genomic hallmarks of parasexual reproduction in three hybrid groups of the human pathogenbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Genome restructuring and lineage diversification of Cryptococcus neoformans during chronic infection of human hosts.Cell reports · 2025Article
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- Is Cryptococcus neoformans a pleomorphic fungus?Current opinion in microbiology · 2024Review
- Biogenesis, germination, and pathogenesis ofMicrobiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2024Review
- Comparative genomics of the extremophileFrontiers in fungal biology · 2024Article
- On the evolution of variation in sexual reproduction through the prism of eukaryotic microbes.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Review
- Ontogenetic Variation in Macrocyclic and Hemicyclic Poplar Rust Fungi.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Review
- Horse: a potential source of Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii in Egypt.BMC veterinary research · 2022Article
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- Dynamic genome plasticity during unisexual reproduction in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus deneoformans.PLoS genetics · 2021Article
- Accounting for the Biological Complexity of Pathogenic Fungi in Phylogenetic Dating.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Population genomic analysis of Cryptococcus Brazilian isolates reveals an African type subclade distribution.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2021Article
- What Are the Best Parents for Hybrid Progeny? An Investigation into the Human Pathogenic FungusJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Cryptococcus neoformans: Sex, morphogenesis, and virulence.Infection, genetics and evolution : journal of molecular epidemiology and evolutionary genetics in infectious diseases · 2021Review
- An intergenic "safe haven" region in Cryptococcus neoformans serotype D genomes.Fungal genetics and biology : FG & B · 2020Article
24 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
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Abstract
The ubiquitous environmental human pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans is traditionally considered a haploid fungus with a bipolar mating system. In nature, the alpha mating type is overwhelmingly predominant over a. How genetic diversity is generated and maintained by this heterothallic fungus in a largely unisexual alpha population is unclear. Recently it was discovered that C. neoformans can undergo same-sex mating under laboratory conditions generating both diploid intermediates and haploid recombinant progeny. Same-sex mating (alpha-alpha) also occurs in nature as evidenced by the existence of natural diploid alphaADalpha hybrids that arose by fusion between two alpha cells of different serotypes (A and D). How significantly this novel sexual style contributes to genetic diversity of the Cryptococcus population was unknown. In this study, approximately 500 natural C. neoformans isolates were tested for ploidy and close to 8% were found to be diploid by fluorescence flow cytometry analysis. The majority of these diploids were serotype A isolates with two copies of the alpha MAT locus allele. Among those, several are intra-varietal allodiploid hybrids produced by fusion of two genetically distinct alpha cells through same-sex mating. The majority, however, are autodiploids that harbor two seemingly identical copies of the genome and arose via either endoreplication or clonal mating. The diploids identified were isolated from different geographic locations and varied genotypically and phenotypically, indicating independent non-clonal origins. The present study demonstrates that unisexual mating produces diploid isolates of C. neoformans in nature, giving rise to populations of hybrids and mixed ploidy. Our findings underscore the importance of same-sex mating in shaping the current population structure of this important human pathogenic fungus, with implications for mechanisms of selfing and inbreeding in other microbial pathogens.
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