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The Mating Game

While humans can use dating apps to find a suitable mate, life isn’t so easy for the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans. The fungal cells have two different genetic mating types, ‘a’ and ‘alpha’, which are very roughly analogous to two sexes in more complex species. Although two cells of the same type can fuse together and produce new offspring, it’s more beneficial for the population if two different cells mate as this leads to more genetic mixing. However, most fungal cells are alpha, making it hard to find an a-type mate. These images show alpha cells on the right-hand side of each picture stretching out long strands (known as hyphae) in search of a-type mates (left). Cryptococcus neoformans causes serious lung infections and can be fatal if it spreads into the brain. Understanding how the fungus reproduces is an important step towards figuring out how to stop infections growing and spreading.

Written by Kat Arney

Image from work by Ci Fu, Torin P. Thielhelm and Joseph Heitman

Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA

Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)

Published in PLOS Genetics, September 2019

Background: The innate immune response and cytokine milieu in airway mucosa, mediated by bronchial epithelial cells, are critical in determining susceptibility or protection against cryptococcosis. In experimental models, Th2 and Th1 responses are linked to susceptibility and protection, respectively, while the roles of other cytokines remain less understood. Aims: To evaluate the in vitro…

Meningite da criptococco: cos’è e chi sono le categorie a rischio

Introduzione

Il criptococco è un fungo comune che si trova spesso nel terreno e negli escrementi di uccelli. La meningite criptococcica è una grave infezione del rivestimento del cervello e del midollo spinale causata da questo fungo. Due tipi di funghi Cryptococcus causano meningite criptococcica. Il fungo C. neoformanscausa la maggior parte dei casi di meningite criptococcica. Questa specie si…