Linking genome evolution and physiological adaptations to understand lifestyle transition and emergence of pathogenicity in the Trichosporonales (Agaricomycotina)

• Applicant: Marco Alexandre Guerreiro, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Evolution and Systematics of Plants and Fungi ; Medical Microbiology and Mycology, Hygiene, Molecular Infection Biology ; Microbial Ecology and Applied Microbiology ; Metabolism, Biochemistry and Genetics of Microorganisms
• Term: from 2021 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 460261834

Recent years have seen an uprise in newly emerging fungal pathogens on humans. Fungal pathogens in general are known to be highly diverse and fast adaptation to host defenses. Studies addressing the emergence of new fungal pathogens on humans usually focus on Ascomycetes and despite their importance, knowledge on Basidiomycetes is limited with only few intensively studied model systems. The Trichosporonales (Tremellomycetes, Agaricomycotina, Basidiomycota) harbours saprobic and opportunistic human pathogenic species. These emerging pathogens are responsible for superficial skin irritations, but also cause invasive life-threatening infections. However, little is known about their evolution, ecology, virulence mechanisms and the transitions to pathogenic lifestyles. The diverse ecology and lifestyles in this group, combined with the apparent low diversity and divergence in this group, makes the Trichosporonales a promising group to study genome evolution and ecological adaptations to address lifestyle transitions and emergence of pathogenicity in fungi. Here I propose to study the Trichosporonales in order to: (1) address genome evolution associated with lifestyle transitions from saprobic to pathogenic by comparative genomics; (2) determine specific physiological adaptations and genomic signatures associated with the different lifestyles; (3) determine the taxonomic diversity within the group; and (4) provide insights into how new fungal pathogens emerge.

• DFG Programme: WBP Position