ArticlePLoS genetics2012
Discovery of a modified tetrapolar sexual cycle in Cryptococcus amylolentus and the evolution of MAT in the Cryptococcus species complex.
Article in PLoS genetics, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers.
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43 citing papers in PubMed, 62 citations in OpenAlex.
- Dissecting the homeodomainmBio · 2026Article
- Dissecting the homeodomainbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- The complex evolution and genomic dynamics of mating-type loci in Cryptococcus and Kwoniella.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Tracing the evolution and genomic dynamics of mating-type loci inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Comparative genomics of the closely related fungal genera Cryptococcus and Kwoniella reveals karyotype dynamics and suggests evolutionary mechanisms of pathogenesis.PLoS biology · 2024Article
- Comparative genomics ofbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Divergent paths:Current medical mycology · 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
- Draft genome sequences of strains CBS6241 and CBS6242 of the basidiomycetous yeast Filobasidium floriforme.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2022Article
- Dynamic genome plasticity during unisexual reproduction in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus deneoformans.PLoS genetics · 2021Article
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- A Chromosome-Scale Assembly of the Wheat Leaf Rust PathogenFrontiers in microbiology · 2021Article
- The evolving species concepts used for yeasts: from phenotypes and genomes to speciation networks.Fungal diversity · 2021Review
- Centromere deletion ineLife · 2020Article
- The Pheromone and Pheromone Receptor Mating-Type Locus Is Involved in Controlling Uniparental Mitochondrial Inheritance inGenetics · 2020Article
- Whole-genome resequencing of Trichophyton rubrum provides insights into population differentiation and drug resistance.Mycopathologia · 2020Article
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- Titan cell formation is unique toVirulence · 2020Article
- The Evolution of Sexual Reproduction and the Mating-Type Locus: Links to Pathogenesis ofAnnual review of genetics · 2019Review
- Life Cycle ofAnnual review of microbiology · 2019Review
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Sexual reproduction in fungi is governed by a specialized genomic region called the mating-type locus (MAT). The human fungal pathogenic and basidiomycetous yeast Cryptococcus neoformans has evolved a bipolar mating system (a, α) in which the MAT locus is unusually large (>100 kb) and encodes >20 genes including homeodomain (HD) and pheromone/receptor (P/R) genes. To understand how this unique bipolar mating system evolved, we investigated MAT in the closely related species Tsuchiyaea wingfieldii and Cryptococcus amylolentus and discovered two physically unlinked loci encoding the HD and P/R genes. Interestingly, the HD (B) locus sex-specific region is restricted (∼2 kb) and encodes two linked and divergently oriented homeodomain genes in contrast to the solo HD genes (SXI1α, SXI2a) of C. neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii. The P/R (A) locus contains the pheromone and pheromone receptor genes but has expanded considerably compared to other outgroup species (Cryptococcus heveanensis) and is linked to many of the genes also found in the MAT locus of the pathogenic Cryptococcus species. Our discovery of a heterothallic sexual cycle for C. amylolentus allowed us to establish the biological roles of the sex-determining regions. Matings between two strains of opposite mating-types (A1B1×A2B2) produced dikaryotic hyphae with fused clamp connections, basidia, and basidiospores. Genotyping progeny using markers linked and unlinked to MAT revealed that meiosis and uniparental mitochondrial inheritance occur during the sexual cycle of C. amylolentus. The sexual cycle is tetrapolar and produces fertile progeny of four mating-types (A1B1, A1B2, A2B1, and A2B2), but a high proportion of progeny are infertile, and fertility is biased towards one parental mating-type (A1B1). Our studies reveal insights into the plasticity and transitions in both mechanisms of sex determination (bipolar versus tetrapolar) and sexual reproduction (outcrossing versus inbreeding) with implications for similar evolutionary transitions and processes in fungi, plants, and animals.
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