ArticlePLoS pathogens2012
DNA mutations mediate microevolution between host-adapted forms of the pathogenic fungus Cryptococcus neoformans.
Article in PLoS pathogens, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 66 papers.
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Who cites it
66 citing papers in PubMed, 86 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Mammalian-evolved strains of the fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans show adaptation via heritable transcript level differences specific to mouse MHC haplotype.BMC genomics · 2026Article
- Distinct STRIPAK subunits drive conserved and subunit-specific signaling programs inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Genomic hallmarks of parasexual reproduction in three hybrid groups of the human pathogenbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Current Insights intoJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Decoding Cryptococcus: From African biodiversity to worldwide prevalence.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- Climate Change Impacts on Environmental Fungi: Human Health and Fungal Disease.Current topics in microbiology and immunology · 2025Review
- Current Approaches in Genome Assembly of Human Fungal Pathogens.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2025Article
- Rapid evolution of an adaptive multicellular morphology of Candida auris during systemic infection.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Adaptation to an amoeba host drives selection of virulence-associated traits and genetic variation in saprotrophicFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2024Article
- Amoeba predation of Cryptococcus: A quantitative and population genomic evaluation of the accidental pathogen hypothesis.PLoS pathogens · 2023Article
- Vaccination with aInfection and immunity · 2023Article
- Isolation of a fungal calcineurin A mutant suggests that amoebae can counter-select virulence attributes of microbes.Medical mycology · 2023Article
- Similar evolutionary trajectories in an environmentalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Article
- Evolution of the human pathogenic lifestyle in fungi.Nature microbiology · 2022Review
- Article
- Mutators Enhance Adaptive Micro-Evolution in Pathogenic Microbes.Microorganisms · 2022Review
- The need for environmental surveillance to understand the ecology, epidemiology and impact of Cryptococcus infection in Africa.FEMS microbiology ecology · 2021Review
- Article
6 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The disease cryptococcosis, caused by the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans, is acquired directly from environmental exposure rather than transmitted person-to-person. One explanation for the pathogenicity of this species is that interactions with environmental predators select for virulence. However, co-incubation of C. neoformans with amoeba can cause a "switch" from the normal yeast morphology to a pseudohyphal form, enabling fungi to survive exposure to amoeba, yet conversely reducing virulence in mammalian models of cryptococcosis. Like other human pathogenic fungi, C. neoformans is capable of microevolutionary changes that influence the biology of the organism and outcome of the host-pathogen interaction. A yeast-pseudohyphal phenotypic switch also happens under in vitro conditions. Here, we demonstrate that this morphological switch, rather than being under epigenetic control, is controlled by DNA mutation since all pseudohyphal strains bear mutations within genes encoding components of the RAM pathway. High rates of isolation of pseudohyphal strains can be explained by the physical size of RAM pathway genes and a hypermutator phenotype of the strain used in phenotypic switching studies. Reversion to wild type yeast morphology in vitro or within a mammalian host can occur through different mechanisms, with one being counter-acting mutations. Infection of mice with RAM mutants reveals several outcomes: clearance of the infection, asymptomatic maintenance of the strains, or reversion to wild type forms and progression of disease. These findings demonstrate a key role of mutation events in microevolution to modulate the ability of a fungal pathogen to cause disease.
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