Journal article
Small chromosomes among Danish Candida glabrata isolates originated through different mechanisms
We analyzed 192 strains of the pathogenic yeast Candida glabrata from patients, mainly suffering from systemic infection, at Danish hospitals during 1985–1999. Our analysis showed that these strains were closely related but exhibited large karyotype polymorphism. Nine strains contained small chromosomes, which were smaller than 0.5 Mb.
Regarding the year, patient and hospital, these C. glabrata strains had independent origin and the analyzed small chromosomes were structurally not related to each other (i.e. they contained different sets of genes). We suggest that at least two mechanisms could participate in their origin: (i) through a segmental duplication which covered the centromeric region, or (ii) by a translocation event moving a larger chromosome arm to another chromosome that leaves the centromere part with the shorter arm.
The first type of small chromosomes carrying duplicated genes exhibited mitotic instability, while the second type, which contained the corresponding genes in only one copy in the genome, was mitotically stable. Apparently, in patients C. glabrata chromosomes are frequently reshuffled resulting in new genetic configurations, including appearance of small chromosomes, and some of these resulting “mutant” strains can have increased fitness in a certain patient “environment”.
Language: | English |
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Publisher: | Springer Netherlands |
Year: | 2013 |
Pages: | 111-122 |
Journal subtitle: | Journal of Microbiology |
ISSN: | 15729699 and 00036072 |
Types: | Journal article |
DOI: | 10.1007/s10482-013-9931-3 |
Antifungal Agents Base Sequence Biomedical and Life Sciences Candida glabrata Candidiasis Chromosome Chromosomes, Fungal Cross Infection DNA, Fungal DNA, Ribosomal Denmark Drug Resistance, Fungal Evolution, Molecular Fluconazole Fungemia Gene Duplication Genes, Fungal Genome rearrangements Genomic Instability Haploidy Humans Karyotyping Life Sciences Medical Microbiology Microbiology Molecular Sequence Data Pathogenic yeast Phylogeny Plant Sciences Selection, Genetic Soil Science & Conservation Species Specificity Translocation, Genetic