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Chromatin-Mediated Regulation of Genome Plasticity in Human Fungal Pathogens
Human fungal pathogens, such as Candida albicans, Aspergillus fumigatus and Cryptococcus neoformans, are a public health problem, causing millions of infections and killing almost half a million people annually. The ability of these pathogens to colonise almost every organ in the human body and caus...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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MDPI
2019
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6896017/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31661931 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes10110855 |
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author | Buscaino, Alessia |
author_facet | Buscaino, Alessia |
author_sort | Buscaino, Alessia |
collection | PubMed |
description | Human fungal pathogens, such as Candida albicans, Aspergillus fumigatus and Cryptococcus neoformans, are a public health problem, causing millions of infections and killing almost half a million people annually. The ability of these pathogens to colonise almost every organ in the human body and cause life-threating infections relies on their capacity to adapt and thrive in diverse hostile host-niche environments. Stress-induced genome instability is a key adaptive strategy used by human fungal pathogens as it increases genetic diversity, thereby allowing selection of genotype(s) better adapted to a new environment. Heterochromatin represses gene expression and deleterious recombination and could play a key role in modulating genome stability in response to environmental changes. However, very little is known about heterochromatin structure and function in human fungal pathogens. In this review, I use our knowledge of heterochromatin structure and function in fungal model systems as a road map to review the role of heterochromatin in regulating genome plasticity in the most common human fungal pathogens: Candida albicans, Aspergillus fumigatus and Cryptococcus neoformans. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6896017 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-68960172019-12-24 Chromatin-Mediated Regulation of Genome Plasticity in Human Fungal Pathogens Buscaino, Alessia Genes (Basel) Review Human fungal pathogens, such as Candida albicans, Aspergillus fumigatus and Cryptococcus neoformans, are a public health problem, causing millions of infections and killing almost half a million people annually. The ability of these pathogens to colonise almost every organ in the human body and cause life-threating infections relies on their capacity to adapt and thrive in diverse hostile host-niche environments. Stress-induced genome instability is a key adaptive strategy used by human fungal pathogens as it increases genetic diversity, thereby allowing selection of genotype(s) better adapted to a new environment. Heterochromatin represses gene expression and deleterious recombination and could play a key role in modulating genome stability in response to environmental changes. However, very little is known about heterochromatin structure and function in human fungal pathogens. In this review, I use our knowledge of heterochromatin structure and function in fungal model systems as a road map to review the role of heterochromatin in regulating genome plasticity in the most common human fungal pathogens: Candida albicans, Aspergillus fumigatus and Cryptococcus neoformans. MDPI 2019-10-28 /pmc/articles/PMC6896017/ /pubmed/31661931 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes10110855 Text en © 2019 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Review Buscaino, Alessia Chromatin-Mediated Regulation of Genome Plasticity in Human Fungal Pathogens |
title | Chromatin-Mediated Regulation of Genome Plasticity in Human Fungal Pathogens |
title_full | Chromatin-Mediated Regulation of Genome Plasticity in Human Fungal Pathogens |
title_fullStr | Chromatin-Mediated Regulation of Genome Plasticity in Human Fungal Pathogens |
title_full_unstemmed | Chromatin-Mediated Regulation of Genome Plasticity in Human Fungal Pathogens |
title_short | Chromatin-Mediated Regulation of Genome Plasticity in Human Fungal Pathogens |
title_sort | chromatin-mediated regulation of genome plasticity in human fungal pathogens |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6896017/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31661931 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes10110855 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT buscainoalessia chromatinmediatedregulationofgenomeplasticityinhumanfungalpathogens |