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.jpg): Failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\Inetpub\vhosts\kidney.de\httpdocs\pget.php on line 117 Genetics
2014 ; 198
(3
): 1059-69
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Unisexual reproduction reverses Muller s ratchet
#MMPMID25217049
Roach KC
; Heitman J
Genetics
2014[Nov]; 198
(3
): 1059-69
PMID25217049
show ga
Cryptococcus neoformans is a pathogenic basidiomycetous fungus that engages in
outcrossing, inbreeding, and selfing forms of unisexual reproduction as well as
canonical sexual reproduction between opposite mating types. Long thought to be
clonal, >99% of sampled environmental and clinical isolates of C. neoformans are
MAT?, limiting the frequency of opposite mating-type sexual reproduction. Sexual
reproduction allows eukaryotic organisms to exchange genetic information and
shuffle their genomes to avoid the irreversible accumulation of deleterious
changes that occur in asexual populations, known as Muller's ratchet. We tested
whether unisexual reproduction, which dispenses with the requirement for an
opposite mating-type partner, is able to purge the genome of deleterious
mutations. We report that the unisexual cycle can restore mutant strains of C.
neoformans to wild-type genotype and phenotype, including prototrophy and growth
rate. Furthermore, the unisexual cycle allows attenuated strains to purge
deleterious mutations and produce progeny that are returned to wild-type
virulence. Our results show that unisexual populations of C. neoformans are able
to avoid Muller's ratchet and loss of fitness through a unisexual reproduction
cycle involving ?-? cell fusion, nuclear fusion, and meiosis. Similar types of
unisexual reproduction may operate in other pathogenic and saprobic eukaryotic
taxa.