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Continental Drift and Speciation of the Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii Species Complexes
Genomic analysis has placed the origins of two human-pathogenic fungi, the Cryptococcus gattii species complex and the Cryptococcus neoformans species complex, in South America and Africa, respectively. Molecular clock calculations suggest that the two species separated ~80 to 100 million years ago....
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
American Society for Microbiology
2017
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5397565/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28435888 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mSphere.00103-17 |
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author | Casadevall, Arturo Freij, Joudeh B. Hann-Soden, Christopher Taylor, John |
author_facet | Casadevall, Arturo Freij, Joudeh B. Hann-Soden, Christopher Taylor, John |
author_sort | Casadevall, Arturo |
collection | PubMed |
description | Genomic analysis has placed the origins of two human-pathogenic fungi, the Cryptococcus gattii species complex and the Cryptococcus neoformans species complex, in South America and Africa, respectively. Molecular clock calculations suggest that the two species separated ~80 to 100 million years ago. This time closely approximates the breakup of the supercontinent Pangea, which gave rise to South America and Africa. On the basis of the geographic distribution of these two species complexes and the coincidence of the evolutionary divergence and Pangea breakup times, we propose that a spatial separation caused by continental drift resulted in the emergence of the C. gattii and C. neoformans species complexes from a Pangean ancestor. We note that, despite the spatial and temporal separation that occurred approximately 100 million years ago, these two species complexes are morphologically similar, share virulence factors, and cause very similar diseases. Continuation of these phenotypic characteristics despite ancient separation suggests the maintenance of similar selection pressures throughout geologic ages. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5397565 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | American Society for Microbiology |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-53975652017-04-21 Continental Drift and Speciation of the Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii Species Complexes Casadevall, Arturo Freij, Joudeh B. Hann-Soden, Christopher Taylor, John mSphere Opinion/Hypothesis Genomic analysis has placed the origins of two human-pathogenic fungi, the Cryptococcus gattii species complex and the Cryptococcus neoformans species complex, in South America and Africa, respectively. Molecular clock calculations suggest that the two species separated ~80 to 100 million years ago. This time closely approximates the breakup of the supercontinent Pangea, which gave rise to South America and Africa. On the basis of the geographic distribution of these two species complexes and the coincidence of the evolutionary divergence and Pangea breakup times, we propose that a spatial separation caused by continental drift resulted in the emergence of the C. gattii and C. neoformans species complexes from a Pangean ancestor. We note that, despite the spatial and temporal separation that occurred approximately 100 million years ago, these two species complexes are morphologically similar, share virulence factors, and cause very similar diseases. Continuation of these phenotypic characteristics despite ancient separation suggests the maintenance of similar selection pressures throughout geologic ages. American Society for Microbiology 2017-04-19 /pmc/articles/PMC5397565/ /pubmed/28435888 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mSphere.00103-17 Text en Copyright © 2017 Casadevall et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Opinion/Hypothesis Casadevall, Arturo Freij, Joudeh B. Hann-Soden, Christopher Taylor, John Continental Drift and Speciation of the Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii Species Complexes |
title | Continental Drift and Speciation of the Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii Species Complexes |
title_full | Continental Drift and Speciation of the Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii Species Complexes |
title_fullStr | Continental Drift and Speciation of the Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii Species Complexes |
title_full_unstemmed | Continental Drift and Speciation of the Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii Species Complexes |
title_short | Continental Drift and Speciation of the Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii Species Complexes |
title_sort | continental drift and speciation of the cryptococcus neoformans and cryptococcus gattii species complexes |
topic | Opinion/Hypothesis |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5397565/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28435888 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mSphere.00103-17 |
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