ArticleNature2009
Homothallic and heterothallic mating in the opportunistic pathogen Candida albicans.
Article in Nature, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 134 papers.
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Who cites it
134 citing papers in PubMed, 216 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Mating-Type Loci Modulate Pathogenicity and Non-Sexual Development Through Autocrine Pheromone Signalling in the Asexual Fungus Fusarium oxysporum.Molecular plant pathology · 2026Article
- Parasex generates highly recombinant progeny in Candida albicans with increased virulence.Nature microbiology · 2026Article
- Genetic and environmental control of parasexual reproduction in the pathogenicMicrobiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2025Review
- Unisexual reproduction in the global human fungal pathogenProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Unisexual reproduction in the global human fungal pathogenbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Research advances and public health strategies in China on WHO priority fungal pathogens.Mycology · 2025Review
- Review
- White-opaque switching inMicrobiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2024Review
- Functional analysis of the mating type genes in Verticillium dahliae.BMC biology · 2024Article
- Cip1, a CDK regulator, determines heterothallic mating or homothallic selfing in a protist.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- In Vivo Microevolutionary Analysis of a Fatal Case of Rhinofacial and Disseminated Mycosis Due to Azole-Drug-Resistant Candida Species.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Atmospheric humidity regulates same-sex mating in Candida albicans through the trehalose and osmotic signaling pathways.Science China. Life sciences · 2023Article
- Genetic Diversity of Human Fungal Pathogens.Current clinical microbiology reports · 2023Article
- Structure and number of mating pheromone genes is closely linked to sexual reproductive strategy in Huntiella.BMC genomics · 2023Article
- Forest health in the Anthropocene: the emergence of a novel tree disease is associated with poplar cultivation.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Article
- 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
- Self-Hybridization in Leishmania major.mBio · 2022Article
- Ploidy changes in human fungal pathogens: Going beyond sexual reproduction.PLoS pathogens · 2022Article
- Article
74 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Candida albicans is the most common fungal pathogen in humans, causing both debilitating mucosal infections and potentially life-threatening systemic infections. Until recently, C. albicans was thought to be strictly asexual, existing only as an obligate diploid. A cryptic mating cycle has since been uncovered in which diploid a and alpha cells undergo efficient cell and nuclear fusion, resulting in tetraploid a/alpha mating products. Whereas mating between a and alpha cells has been established (heterothallism), we report here two pathways for same-sex mating (homothallism) in C. albicans. First, unisexual populations of a cells were found to undergo autocrine pheromone signalling and same-sex mating in the absence of the Bar1 protease. In both C. albicans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Bar1 is produced by a cells and inactivates mating pheromone alpha, typically secreted by alpha cells. C. albicans Deltabar1 a cells were shown to secrete both a and alpha mating pheromones; alpha-pheromone activated self-mating in these cells in a process dependent on Ste2, the receptor for alpha-pheromone. In addition, pheromone production by alpha cells was found to promote same-sex mating between wild-type a cells. These results establish that homothallic mating can occur in C. albicans, revealing the potential for genetic exchange even within unisexual populations of the organism. Furthermore, Bar1 protease has an unexpected but pivotal role in determining whether sexual reproduction can potentially be homothallic or is exclusively heterothallic. These findings also have implications for the mode of sexual reproduction in related species that propagate unisexually, and indicate a role for specialized sexual cycles in the survival and adaptation of pathogenic fungi.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.