Abstract
Penicillium capsulatum is a rare Penicillium species used in paper manufacturing, but recently it has been reported to cause invasive infection. To research the pathogenicity of the clinical Penicillium strain, we sequenced the genomes and transcriptomes of the clinical and environmental strains of P. capsulatum. Comparative analyses of these two P. capsulatum strains and close related strains belonging to Eurotiales were performed. The assembled genome sizes of P. capsulatum are approximately 34.4 Mbp in length and encode 11,080 predicted genes. The different isolates of P. capsulatum are highly similar, with the exception of several unique genes, INDELs or SNPs in the genes coding for glycosyl hydrolases, amino acid transporters and circumsporozoite protein. A phylogenomic analysis was performed based on the whole genome data of 38 strains belonging to Eurotiales. By comparing the whole genome sequences and the virulence-related genes from 20 important related species, including fungal pathogens and non-human pathogens belonging to Eurotiales, we found meaningful pathogenicity characteristics between P. capsulatum and its closely related species. Our research indicated that P. capsulatum may be a neglected opportunistic pathogen. This study is beneficial for mycologists, geneticists and epidemiologists to achieve a deeper understanding of the genetic basis of the role of P. capsulatum as a newly reported fungal pathogen.
Highlights
The term “novel fungal pathogens” has traditionally referred to those non-pathogenic fungi that have been shown to cause human infection, and the number of these pathogens has steadily increased during the last 20 years (Jones et al, 2008)
The results showed that the pathogenic potential of the clinical strain CBS 134186 and environmental strain ATCC 48735 may be extremely similar and that those specific genes, SNPs or INDELs present in the CBS 134186 genome may play a key role in causing invasive infection
The analysis of virulence-related genes in P. capsulatum and related species revealed that these strains have significant pathogenic potential
Summary
The term “novel fungal pathogens” has traditionally referred to those non-pathogenic fungi that have been shown to cause human infection, and the number of these pathogens has steadily increased during the last 20 years (Jones et al, 2008). Current unprecedented declines in biodiversity may increase the risk of fungal infection in mammals, and the potential hazard of novel fungal pathogens cannot be neglected (Keesing et al, 2010; Fisher et al, 2012) All of these fungal pathogens have been identified using morphological, physiological and multiple locus sequence typing (MLST) analyses (Struelens and Brisse, 2013; Samson et al, 2014). It is a challenge to investigate the possible causes of variations in the virulence and the evolution, and transmission of novel fungal pathogens using routine identification techniques
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