ArticlePLoS pathogens2023
Amoeba predation of Cryptococcus: A quantitative and population genomic evaluation of the accidental pathogen hypothesis.
Article in PLoS pathogens, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pervasive context-dependent effects in the genetic architecture of complex and quantitative traits revealed by a powerful multiparent mapping population in yeast.PLoS genetics · 2026Article
- Marine Yeasts for Biotechnology: Potential Applications and Insights from Comparisons with Terrestrial Yeasts.Journal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Pathogenicity and virulence of Cryptococcus neoformans from an environmental perspective.Virulence · 2025Review
- Towards understanding a potentialOne health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2025Article
- Article
- Unisexual reproduction in the global human fungal pathogenProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- The complex evolution and genomic dynamics of mating-type loci in Cryptococcus and Kwoniella.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Unisexual reproduction in the global human fungal pathogenbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Tracing the evolution and genomic dynamics of mating-type loci inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Decoding Cryptococcus: From African biodiversity to worldwide prevalence.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- Strain heterogeneity in a non-pathogenic Aspergillus fungus highlights factors associated with virulence.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Review
- Strain heterogeneity in a non-pathogenic fungus highlights factors contributing to virulence.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Distinct pathways of adaptive evolution in Cryptococcus neoformans reveal a mutation in adenylyl cyclase with trade-offs for pathogenicity.Current biology : CB · 2023Article
- Isolation of a fungal calcineurin A mutant suggests that amoebae can counter-select virulence attributes of microbes.Medical mycology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The "Amoeboid Predator-Fungal Animal Virulence Hypothesis" posits that interactions with environmental phagocytes shape the evolution of virulence traits in fungal pathogens. In this hypothesis, selection to avoid predation by amoeba inadvertently selects for traits that contribute to fungal escape from phagocytic immune cells. Here, we investigate this hypothesis in the human fungal pathogens Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus deneoformans. Applying quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping and comparative genomics, we discovered a cross-species QTL region that is responsible for variation in resistance to amoeba predation. In C. neoformans, this same QTL was found to have pleiotropic effects on melanization, an established virulence factor. Through fine mapping and population genomic comparisons, we identified the gene encoding the transcription factor Bzp4 that underlies this pleiotropic QTL and we show that decreased expression of this gene reduces melanization and increases susceptibility to amoeba predation. Despite the joint effects of BZP4 on amoeba resistance and melanin production, we find no relationship between BZP4 genotype and escape from macrophages or virulence in murine models of disease. Our findings provide new perspectives on how microbial ecology shapes the genetic architecture of fungal virulence, and suggests the need for more nuanced models for the evolution of pathogenesis that account for the complexities of both microbe-microbe and microbe-host interactions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.