Alvarez-Pérez Sergio, Blanco José Luis, Alba Patricia, García Marta E
Departamento de Sanidad Animal, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, España.
Rev Iberoam Micol. 2010 Mar 31;27(1):1-5. doi: 10.1016/j.riam.2009.11.005. Epub 2010 Feb 18.
Aspergillus fumigatus, like many other fungal species of clinical relevance, has been traditionally regarded as an asexual organism. However, in last few years several pieces of evidence question this such assumption, suggesting that the sexual state of A. fumigatus may still be undiscovered. These investigations have finally led to the recent discovery of a teleomorph stage of A. fumigatus, which has been named Neosartorya fumigata.
To review the most important findings on A. fumigatus sexuality and discuss the possible implications of such findings on its pathogenicity.
A bibliographic search was performed to find the main works that study the sexuality of fungal pathogens and, especially, of A. fumigatus. Moreover, data from our recent investigations in this field were also introduced to the discussion.
The existence of a teleomorph for A. fumigatus could have significant clinical repercussions, as sexual reproduction might produce offspring with increased virulence and/or resistance to antifungal agents. In this sense, the results of our investigations suggest the existence of an association between the MAT1-1 mating type and the invasiveness of A. fumigatus isolates.
The study of the sexual reproduction of the fungal pathogens and its possible relationship with virulence will continue to be a topic of interest during the next years, not only because of its basic interest, but also for the possible clinical repercussions.
烟曲霉与许多其他具有临床相关性的真菌物种一样，传统上被视为无性生物。然而，在过去几年中，一些证据对这一假设提出了质疑，表明烟曲霉的有性状态可能仍未被发现。这些研究最终导致了最近发现烟曲霉的有性型阶段，它被命名为烟新萨托菌。
综述关于烟曲霉有性生殖的最重要发现，并讨论这些发现对其致病性的可能影响。
进行文献检索以找到研究真菌病原体特别是烟曲霉有性生殖的主要著作。此外，我们在该领域最近的研究数据也被引入讨论。
烟曲霉有性型的存在可能具有重大的临床影响，因为有性生殖可能产生毒力增强和/或对抗真菌药物具有抗性的后代。从这个意义上说，我们的研究结果表明交配型MAT1-1与烟曲霉分离株的侵袭性之间存在关联。
真菌病原体有性生殖及其与毒力的可能关系的研究在未来几年仍将是一个有趣的话题，这不仅是因为其基本的研究价值，还因为其可能的临床影响。
