Journal
CURRENT GENETICS
Volume 65, Issue 1, Pages 93-98Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00294-018-0867-z
Keywords
Candida glabrata; Candida; Fungal pathogens; Candidiasis; Genome sequencing
Categories
Funding
- Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness (MEIC)
- European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) [SEV-2012-0208, BFU2015-67107]
- CERCA Programme / Generalitat de Catalunya
- Catalan Research Agency (AGAUR) [SGR857]
- European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme [ERC-2016-724173]
- European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant [H2020-MSCA-ITN-2014-642095]
- CNRS through the GDRI iGenolevures
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Candida glabrata is an opportunistic yeast pathogen, whose incidence has increased over the last decades. Despite its genus name, this species is actually more closely related to the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae than to other Candida pathogens, such as Candida albicans. Hence, C. glabrata and C. albicans must have acquired the ability to infect humans independently, which is reflected in the use of different mechanism for virulence, and survival in the host. Yet, research on C. glabrata suffers from assumptions carried over from the more studied C. albicans. Regarding the adaptation of C. glabrata to the human host, the prejudice was that, just as C. albicans, C. glabrata is a natural human commensal that turns deadly when immune defenses weaken. It was also considered asexual, as no one has observed mating, diploids, or spores, despite great efforts. However, the recent analysis of whole genomes from globally distributed C. glabrata isolates have shaken these assumptions. C. glabrata seems to be only secondarily associated to humans, as indicated by a lack of co-evolution with its host, and genomic footprints of recombination shows compelling evidence that this yeast is able to have sex. Here, we discuss the implications of this and other recent findings and highlight the new questions opened by this change in paradigm.
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