Morphotype Transition and Sexual Reproduction Are Genetically Associated in a Ubiquitous Environmental Pathogen

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Sex, despite its cost, is an important means to maximize species fitness in coping with unpredictable environmental challenges. In the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans, sexual reproduction has yielded hyper virulent and drug resistant variants, and produces airborne infectious spores. Developmentally, sexual spores are generated from fruiting bodies that are differentiated from aerial hyphae. Cryptococcus cells typically grow as yeast cells with a subpopulation that respond to mating stimulation and switch to hyphal growth after mating. However, mechanisms that connect sexual reproduction and multiple differentiation events to ensure the developmental continuality are unknown. Here we revealed a network of yeast-to-hypha transition in Cryptococcus. From this network we identified a Pumilio-family RNA binding protein Pum1 that acts in concert with the matricellular signal Cfl1 in regulating the yeast-to-hyphal transition following mating. Interestingly, Pum1 is also important in sustaining hyphal growth and in directing the progression from aerial hyphal morphogenesis to the formation of fruiting bodies. Intriguingly, mutations of Pum1 affect the spatiotemporal expression pattern of the filament -⁠ and meiosis-specific proteins Fas1 and Dmc1. Our study opens a new avenue to investigate how a microbe controls development continuity while maintaining population heterogeneity.

Vyšlo v časopise: Morphotype Transition and Sexual Reproduction Are Genetically Associated in a Ubiquitous Environmental Pathogen. PLoS Pathog 10(6): e32767. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1004185
Kategorie: Research Article
prolekare.web.journal.doi_sk: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1004185

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