Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 5, 2025

Isolation of Culturable Yeasts and Molds from Soils to Investigate Fungal Population Structure
10:33

Isolation of Culturable Yeasts and Molds from Soils to Investigate Fungal Population Structure

Published on: May 27, 2022

5.5K

Genome-wide patterns of non-coding sequence variation in the major fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus

Alec Brown1,2, Jacob L Steenwyk1,2,3, Antonis Rokas1,2

  • 1Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.

Biorxiv : the Preprint Server for Biology
|January 23, 2024
PubMed

Insights

Genetic variation in non-coding regions of Aspergillus fumigatus (A. fumigatus) contributes to strain differences. These non-coding regions show higher sequence variation than protein-coding genes, potentially explaining phenotypic heterogeneity in this fungal pathogen.

Area of Science:

  • Genomics
  • Mycology
  • Evolutionary Biology

Background:

  • Aspergillus fumigatus is a significant fungal pathogen causing over 400,000 infections annually with high mortality.
  • Pathogenic traits, including virulence, vary among A. fumigatus strains, yet most protein-coding genes are conserved.
  • Genetic variation in non-coding regions may drive differences in gene regulation and phenotypic diversity.

Approach:

  • Analyzed genomes from 263 A. fumigatus strains to identify 5,812 single-copy orthologs.
  • Compared sequence variation levels between non-coding and protein-coding regions across strains.
  • Investigated signatures of positive selection in both coding and non-coding regions.

Key Points:

  • Non-coding regions of A. fumigatus genes exhibit substantially higher sequence variation than protein-coding regions.
  • A significant number of non-coding regions showed low nucleotide sequence similarity (<75%) across strains.
  • Positive selection was detected in non-coding regions of genes associated with A. fumigatus virulence.

Conclusions:

  • Non-coding regions are a major source of genetic variation in A. fumigatus.
  • This variation in regulatory elements may underlie phenotypic heterogeneity and differences in virulence among strains.
  • Further research into non-coding region variation is crucial for understanding A. fumigatus pathogenesis.
Keywords:
Aspergillus fumigatusdivergenceevolutionfungal genomicsnon-coding regionpathobiologypolymorphismselectionstrainstrain heterogeneityvirulence factor

More Related Videos

Histological Quantification to Determine Lung Fungal Burden in Experimental Aspergillosis09:52

Histological Quantification to Determine Lung Fungal Burden in Experimental Aspergillosis

Published on: March 9, 2018

10.6K
Whole Genome Sequencing of Candida glabrata for Detection of Markers of Antifungal Drug Resistance08:45

Whole Genome Sequencing of Candida glabrata for Detection of Markers of Antifungal Drug Resistance

Published on: December 28, 2017

13.8K

Related Concept Videos

Genome-wide Association Studies-GWAS01:11

Genome-wide Association Studies-GWAS

Genome-wide association studies or GWAS are used to identify whether common SNPs are associated with certain diseases. Suppose specific SNPs are more frequently observed in individuals with a particular disease than those without the disease. In that case, those SNPs are said to be associated with the disease. Chi-square analysis is performed to check the probability of the allele likely to be associated with the disease.
GWAS does not require the identification of the target gene involved in...
13.4K
Multi-species Conserved Sequences02:51

Multi-species Conserved Sequences

Next-generation sequencing technologies have created large genomic databases of a variety of animals and plants. Ever since the human genome project was completed, scientists studied the genome of primates, mammals, and other phylogenetically distant living beings. Such large-scale  studies have provided new insights into the evolutionary relationship between organisms.
Although the genome of each species varies greatly from each other, a few sequences are highly conserved. Such conserved...
3.9K
Comparing Copy Number Variations and SNPs02:26

Comparing Copy Number Variations and SNPs

Sequencing of the human genome has opened up several best-kept secrets of the genome. Scientists have identified thousands of genome variations that exist within a population. These variations can be a single nucleotide or a larger chromosomal variation.
Copy number variations or CNVs are the structural variations that cover more than 1kb of DNA sequence. The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), on the other hand, is a single nucleotide change or a point mutation that is found in more than 1%...
17.7K
Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?02:05

Gene Evolution - Fast or Slow?

The genomes of eukaryotes are punctuated by long stretches of sequence which do not code for proteins or RNAs. Although some of these regions do contain crucial regulatory sequences, the vast majority of this DNA serves no known function. Typically, these regions of the genome are the ones in which the fastest change, in evolutionary terms, is observed, because there is typically little to no selection pressure acting on these regions to preserve their sequences.
In contrast, regions which code...
7.1K
Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons02:54

Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons

Genome comparison is one of the excellent ways to interpret the evolutionary relationships between organisms. The basic principle of genome comparison is that if two species share a common feature, it is likely encoded by the DNA sequence conserved between both species. The advent of genome sequencing technologies in the late 20th century enabled scientists to understand the concept of conservation of domains between species and helped them to deduce evolutionary relationships across diverse...
5.7K
Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms-SNPs01:05

Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms-SNPs

A single nucleotide polymorphism or SNP is a single nucleotide variation at a specific genomic position in a large population. It is the most prevalent type of sequence variation found in the human genome. Point mutations that occur in more than 1% of the population qualify as SNPs. These are present once every 1000 nucleotides on an average in the human genome. Replacement of a purine with another purine (A/G) or a pyrimidine with another pyrimidine (C/T) is known as a transition. In contrast,...
15.1K