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Molecular Markers Reveal Epidemiological Patterns and Evolutionary Histories of the Human Pathogenic Cryptococcus

The human pathogenic Cryptococcus species are the main agents of fungal meningitis in humans and the causes of other diseases collectively called cryptococcosis. There are at least eight evolutionary divergent lineages among these agents, with different lineages showing different geographic and/or e...

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Autores principales: Hong, Nan, Chen, Min, Xu, Jianping
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8134695/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34026667
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2021.683670
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author Hong, Nan
Chen, Min
Xu, Jianping
author_facet Hong, Nan
Chen, Min
Xu, Jianping
author_sort Hong, Nan
collection PubMed
description The human pathogenic Cryptococcus species are the main agents of fungal meningitis in humans and the causes of other diseases collectively called cryptococcosis. There are at least eight evolutionary divergent lineages among these agents, with different lineages showing different geographic and/or ecological distributions. In this review, we describe the main strain typing methods that have been used to analyze the human pathogenic Cryptococcus and discuss how molecular markers derived from the various strain typing methods have impacted our understanding of not only cryptococcal epidemiology but also its evolutionary histories. These methods include serotyping, multilocus enzyme electrophoresis, electrophoretic karyotyping, random amplified polymorphic DNA, restriction fragment length polymorphism, PCR-fingerprinting, amplified fragment length polymorphism, multilocus microsatellite typing, single locus and multilocus sequence typing, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry, and whole genome sequencing. The major findings and the advantages and disadvantages of each method are discussed. Together, while controversies remain, these strain typing methods have helped reveal (i) the broad phylogenetic pattern among these agents, (ii) the centers of origins for several lineages and their dispersal patterns, (iii) the distributions of genetic variation among geographic regions and ecological niches, (iv) recent hybridization among several lineages, and (v) specific mutations during infections within individual patients. However, significant challenges remain. Multilocus sequence typing and whole genome sequencing are emerging as the gold standards for continued strain typing and epidemiological investigations of cryptococcosis.
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spelling pubmed-81346952021-05-21 Molecular Markers Reveal Epidemiological Patterns and Evolutionary Histories of the Human Pathogenic Cryptococcus Hong, Nan Chen, Min Xu, Jianping Front Cell Infect Microbiol Cellular and Infection Microbiology The human pathogenic Cryptococcus species are the main agents of fungal meningitis in humans and the causes of other diseases collectively called cryptococcosis. There are at least eight evolutionary divergent lineages among these agents, with different lineages showing different geographic and/or ecological distributions. In this review, we describe the main strain typing methods that have been used to analyze the human pathogenic Cryptococcus and discuss how molecular markers derived from the various strain typing methods have impacted our understanding of not only cryptococcal epidemiology but also its evolutionary histories. These methods include serotyping, multilocus enzyme electrophoresis, electrophoretic karyotyping, random amplified polymorphic DNA, restriction fragment length polymorphism, PCR-fingerprinting, amplified fragment length polymorphism, multilocus microsatellite typing, single locus and multilocus sequence typing, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry, and whole genome sequencing. The major findings and the advantages and disadvantages of each method are discussed. Together, while controversies remain, these strain typing methods have helped reveal (i) the broad phylogenetic pattern among these agents, (ii) the centers of origins for several lineages and their dispersal patterns, (iii) the distributions of genetic variation among geographic regions and ecological niches, (iv) recent hybridization among several lineages, and (v) specific mutations during infections within individual patients. However, significant challenges remain. Multilocus sequence typing and whole genome sequencing are emerging as the gold standards for continued strain typing and epidemiological investigations of cryptococcosis. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-05-06 /pmc/articles/PMC8134695/ /pubmed/34026667 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2021.683670 Text en Copyright © 2021 Hong, Chen and Xu https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Cellular and Infection Microbiology
Hong, Nan
Chen, Min
Xu, Jianping
Molecular Markers Reveal Epidemiological Patterns and Evolutionary Histories of the Human Pathogenic Cryptococcus
title Molecular Markers Reveal Epidemiological Patterns and Evolutionary Histories of the Human Pathogenic Cryptococcus
title_full Molecular Markers Reveal Epidemiological Patterns and Evolutionary Histories of the Human Pathogenic Cryptococcus
title_fullStr Molecular Markers Reveal Epidemiological Patterns and Evolutionary Histories of the Human Pathogenic Cryptococcus
title_full_unstemmed Molecular Markers Reveal Epidemiological Patterns and Evolutionary Histories of the Human Pathogenic Cryptococcus
title_short Molecular Markers Reveal Epidemiological Patterns and Evolutionary Histories of the Human Pathogenic Cryptococcus
title_sort molecular markers reveal epidemiological patterns and evolutionary histories of the human pathogenic cryptococcus
topic Cellular and Infection Microbiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8134695/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34026667
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2021.683670
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