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The Cryptococcus neoformans genome sequencing project

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Abstract

Cryptococcus neoformans is a basidiomycete that can cause life-threatening meningoencephalitis in patients with and without impaired immune function. Cryptococcosis is usually an opportunistic infection in patients with compromised immunity as a consequence of HIV-1 infection, steroid administration, cancer chemotherapy, sarcoidosis, diabetes, or inherited immune system defects. This pathogenic yeast has a defined sexual cycle, which allows classical genetic analysis. Molecular biology approaches, including transformation and gene disruption by homologous recombination, and animal models for studies of virulence are both well developed. Recently an international consortium convened to begin the C. neoformans genome sequencing project, and we review here background and arguments for this project. We also discuss the importance of this project to the biology and virulence of this organism in particular, and to virulence in general.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Genetics, USA

    Joseph Heitman

  2. Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, USA

    Joseph Heitman

  3. Microbiology, USA

    Joseph Heitman & John R. Perfect

  4. Medicine, USA

    Joseph Heitman

  5. Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, 27710, USA

    Joseph Heitman

  6. Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Yeshiva University, Bronx, New York, 10461-1602, U.S.A

    Arturo Casadevall

  7. Edward A. Doisy, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, 1402 South Grand Blvd, St. Louis, MO, 63104, USA

    Jennifer K. Lodge

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  1. Joseph Heitman
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  2. Arturo Casadevall
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  3. Jennifer K. Lodge
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  4. John R. Perfect
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Heitman, J., Casadevall, A., Lodge, J.K. et al. The Cryptococcus neoformans genome sequencing project. Mycopathologia 148, 1–7 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007136602930

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