Distinct routes to thermotolerance in the fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans.
Increasing temperatures associated with climate change have the potential for far-reaching impacts on human health and disease vectors, including fungal pathogens. Pathogenic fungi inhabit a wide range of environments across the world, and their ranges have been slowly expanding in recent decades du...
| Publicado en: | Genetics Vol. 231; no. 3; pp. 1 - 15 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , |
| Formato: | pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Oxford University Press / USA
Nov2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=189408328&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 189408328 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 00166731 GNT jtl: Genetics issn: 00166731 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Nov2025 vid: 231 iid: 3 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 189408328 189408328 189408328 10.1093/genetics/iyaf165 189408328 ppf: 1 ppct: 14 formats: tig: atl: Distinct routes to thermotolerance in the fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans. aug: au: Schwiesow, Mara J W Farinella, Leah A Ruzic, Marina Leinas, Jake T Elde, Nels C Hilbert, Zoë A affil: Department of Human Genetics, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, United States sug: subj: Cryptococcus Heat Climate Change Temperature Adaptation, Physiological Human Phenotype Genotype Cell Size Communicable Diseases Polymerase Chain Reaction Sequence Analysis Funding Source ab: Increasing temperatures associated with climate change have the potential for far-reaching impacts on human health and disease vectors, including fungal pathogens. Pathogenic fungi inhabit a wide range of environments across the world, and their ranges have been slowly expanding in recent decades due, in part, to climate change. Despite these links between increasing temperature and higher prevalence of fungal disease, the direct effects of rising environmental temperatures on the evolution of pathogenic fungi remain unclear. In this study, we investigated how increasing temperatures drive adaptive evolution in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans. First, we performed serial passages of a C. neoformans environmental isolate with gradual changes in temperature over the course of 38 days. Through this approach, we identified several distinct thermally adapted isolates with competitive growth advantages over the parental strain at high temperatures. We then characterized the phenotypic and genetic changes acquired in these evolved isolates, which included alteration of cell size, colony morphology, and, notably, antifungal resistance. Our genetic analyses further revealed distinct genes that facilitate thermoadaptation in different populations—identifying new molecular players in the regulation of this trait and revealing that there are multiple independent routes to gaining thermotolerance. These results highlight the remarkable flexibility of fungi to adapt rapidly to new environments and raise pressing questions about the impacts of rising environmental temperatures on the future of infectious diseases and human health. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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