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Updated: Aug 8, 2026

Biolistic Transformation of a Fluorescent Tagged Gene into the Opportunistic Fungal Pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans
Published on: March 19, 2015
Intersection of fungal fitness and virulence in Cryptococcus neoformans
John C Panepinto1, Peter R Williamson
1Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60612, USA. panepijc@uic.edu
Abstract:
The use of insertional mutagenesis to discover genes that impact laccase activity has resulted in the identification of multiple cellular processes that affect the fitness of Cryptococcus neoformans. Fitness has been defined as the ability of an organism to propagate and evolve within a given environment. Because the human host is an evolutionary dead-end for an opportunistic pathogen, we have defined pathogenic fitness here as the capability to successfully propagate within the stressful environment of the host, causing disease by expression of virulence traits that damage the host. In this review, laccase-deficient insertional mutants will be highlighted in terms of the basic biological processes in which they are involved. The impact of laccase-associated cellular functions on fitness and virulence will be discussed, as will the mutants' potential as therapeutic targets. Vacuolar function, copper homeostasis, mitochondrial function and carbon repression are covered.
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