Same-sex mating and the origin of the Vancouver Island Cryptococcus gattii outbreak

James A. Fraser, Steven S. Giles, Emily C. Wenink, Scarlett G. Geunes-Boyer, Jo Rae Wright, Stephanie Diezmann, Andria Allen, Jason E. Stajich, Fred S. Dietrich, John R. Perfect and Joseph Heitman ()
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James A. Fraser: Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Steven S. Giles: Department of Cell Biology
Emily C. Wenink: Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Scarlett G. Geunes-Boyer: Department of Cell Biology
Jo Rae Wright: Department of Cell Biology
Stephanie Diezmann: Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Andria Allen: Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Jason E. Stajich: Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Fred S. Dietrich: Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
John R. Perfect: Department of Medicine
Joseph Heitman: Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology

Nature, 2005, vol. 437, issue 7063, 1360-1364

Abstract: ‘Same-sex’ mating game A virulent strain of the fungus Cryptococcus gattii emerged on Vancouver Island, Canada in 1999, causing an outbreak of meningoencephalitis, and it is still infecting humans and animals in the region. This was a surprise: C. gattii is normally restricted to the tropics where it grows on eucalyptus trees and only occasionally infects animals and humans. Geneticists now report that the outbreak was caused by genetic combination of the mildly pathogenic Australian incomer with another isolate of an unknown origin. Remarkably, these fungi combined via sexual reproduction to produce a hypervirulent strain, despite the fact that both were of the same ‘sex’. Both are classified ‘α’ rather than ‘a’ strains. It remains to be seen if such mating is common in the wild, and if it occurs in other parasites, such as Trypanosoma, Leishmania and Plasmodium falciparum, where similar α/a mating types are found.

Date: 2005
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DOI: 10.1038/nature04220

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