Howards Hughes Medical Institute and the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, USA.
Vanderbilt University, Department of Biological Sciences, VU Station B #35-1634, Nashville, USA.
Nat Commun. 2024 Sep 28;15(1):8412. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-52639-1.
Cryptic fungal pathogens pose disease management challenges due to their morphological resemblance to known pathogens. Here, we investigated the genomes and phenotypes of 53 globally distributed isolates of Aspergillus section Nidulantes fungi and found 30 clinical isolates-including four isolated from COVID-19 patients-were A. latus, a cryptic pathogen that originated via allodiploid hybridization. Notably, all A. latus isolates were misidentified. A. latus hybrids likely originated via a single hybridization event during the Miocene and harbor substantial genetic diversity. Transcriptome profiling of a clinical isolate revealed that both parental subgenomes are actively expressed and respond to environmental stimuli. Characterizing infection-relevant traits-such as drug resistance and growth under oxidative stress-revealed distinct phenotypic profiles among A. latus hybrids compared to parental and closely related species. Moreover, we identified four features that could aid A. latus taxonomic identification. Together, these findings deepen our understanding of the origin of cryptic pathogens.
由于其形态与已知病原体相似，隐真菌病原体给疾病管理带来了挑战。在这里，我们研究了全球分布的 53 株节丛梗孢属真菌的基因组和表型，发现其中包括 30 株临床分离株（包括 4 株从 COVID-19 患者中分离的）为构巢曲霉，这是一种通过异源二倍体杂交产生的隐生病原体。值得注意的是，所有的构巢曲霉分离株都被错误鉴定了。构巢曲霉杂种可能起源于中新世的一次单一杂交事件，并且具有大量的遗传多样性。对一株临床分离株的转录组分析表明，两个亲本亚基因组都在积极表达，并对环境刺激做出反应。与亲本和密切相关的物种相比，对与感染相关的特征（如耐药性和在氧化应激下的生长）进行表征，揭示了构巢曲霉杂种之间的不同表型特征。此外，我们确定了四个有助于构巢曲霉分类鉴定的特征。总之，这些发现加深了我们对隐生病原体起源的理解。
