ArticleGenetics2014
Unisexual reproduction reverses Muller's ratchet.
Article in Genetics, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Tracing the evolutionary pathway: on the origin of mitochondria and eukaryogenesis.The FEBS journal · 2025Article
- Pneumocystis Mating-Type Locus and Sexual Cycle during Infection.Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2021Review
- The Pacific Tree-Parasitic FungusJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Is Candida auris sexual?PLoS pathogens · 2020Review
- No evidence for accumulation of deleterious mutations and fitness degradation in clonal fish hybrids: Abandoning sex without regrets.Molecular ecology · 2020Article
- Life Cycle ofAnnual review of microbiology · 2019Review
- Unisexual reproduction promotes competition for mating partners in the global human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus deneoformans.PLoS genetics · 2019Article
- Article
- Whole-Genome Sequence Data Uncover Widespread Heterothallism in the Largest Group of Lichen-Forming Fungi.Genome biology and evolution · 2019Article
- Functional and Expression Analyses of themBio · 2018Article
- Article
- PRM1 and KAR5 function in cell-cell fusion and karyogamy to drive distinct bisexual and unisexual cycles in the Cryptococcus pathogenic species complex.PLoS genetics · 2017Article
- Fungal Sex: The Basidiomycota.Microbiology spectrum · 2017Review
- MLST-Based Population Genetic Analysis in a Global Context Reveals Clonality amongst Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii VNI Isolates from HIV Patients in Southeastern Brazil.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2017Article
- Evolution of sexual reproduction: a view from the Fungal Kingdom supports an evolutionary epoch with sex before sexes.Fungal biology reviews · 2015Article
- Endosymbiotic gene transfer from prokaryotic pangenomes: Inherited chimerism in eukaryotes.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2015Article
- Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Cryptococcus neoformans is a pathogenic basidiomycetous fungus that engages in outcrossing, inbreeding, and selfing forms of unisexual reproduction as well as canonical sexual reproduction between opposite mating types. Long thought to be clonal, >99% of sampled environmental and clinical isolates of C. neoformans are MATα, limiting the frequency of opposite mating-type sexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction allows eukaryotic organisms to exchange genetic information and shuffle their genomes to avoid the irreversible accumulation of deleterious changes that occur in asexual populations, known as Muller's ratchet. We tested whether unisexual reproduction, which dispenses with the requirement for an opposite mating-type partner, is able to purge the genome of deleterious mutations. We report that the unisexual cycle can restore mutant strains of C. neoformans to wild-type genotype and phenotype, including prototrophy and growth rate. Furthermore, the unisexual cycle allows attenuated strains to purge deleterious mutations and produce progeny that are returned to wild-type virulence. Our results show that unisexual populations of C. neoformans are able to avoid Muller's ratchet and loss of fitness through a unisexual reproduction cycle involving α-α cell fusion, nuclear fusion, and meiosis. Similar types of unisexual reproduction may operate in other pathogenic and saprobic eukaryotic taxa.
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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.