The transcriptional aftermath in two independently formed hybrids of the opportunistic pathogen Candida orthopsilosis

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• dc.contributor.author Hovhannisyan, Hrant, 1992-
• dc.contributor.author Saus Martínez, Ester
• dc.contributor.author Ksiezopolska, Ewa
• dc.contributor.author Gabaldón Estevan, Juan Antonio, 1973-
• dc.date.accessioned 2021-03-16T07:47:16Z
• dc.date.available 2021-03-16T07:47:16Z
• dc.date.issued 2020
• dc.description.abstract Interspecific hybridization can drive evolutionary adaptation to novel environments. The Saccharomycotina clade of budding yeasts includes many hybrid lineages, and hybridization has been proposed as a source for new pathogenic species. Candida orthopsilosis is an emerging opportunistic pathogen for which most clinical isolates are hybrids, each derived from one of at least four independent crosses between the same two parental lineages. To gain insight into the transcriptomic aftermath of hybridization in these pathogens, we analyzed allele-specific gene expression in two independently formed hybrid strains and in a homozygous strain representative of one parental lineage. Our results show that the effect of hybridization on overall gene expression is rather limited, affecting ∼4% of the genes studied. However, we identified a larger effect in terms of imbalanced allelic expression, affecting ∼9.5% of the heterozygous genes in the hybrids. This effect was larger in the hybrid with more extensive loss of heterozygosity, which may indicate a tendency to avoid loss of heterozygosity in these genes. Consistently, the number of shared genes with allele-specific expression in the two independently formed hybrids was higher than random expectation, suggesting selective retention. Some of the imbalanced genes have functions related to pathogenicity, including zinc transport and superoxide dismutase activities. While it remains unclear whether the observed imbalanced genes play a role in virulence, our results suggest that differences in allele-specific expression may add an additional layer of phenotypic plasticity to traits related to virulence in C. orthopsilosis hybrids.IMPORTANCE How new pathogens emerge is an important question that remains largely unanswered. Some emerging yeast pathogens are hybrids originated through the crossing of two different species, but how hybridization contributes to higher virulence is unclear. Here, we show that hybrids selectively retain gene regulation plasticity inherited from the two parents and that this plasticity affects genes involved in virulence.
• dc.description.sponsorship This work received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement H2020-MSCA-ITN-2014-642095. T.G.’s research group also acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness (MEIC) for the EMBL partnership, from grants “Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa 2013–2017” SEV-2012-0208, and BFU2015-67107 cofounded by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), from the CERCA Program/Generalitat de Catalunya, from the Catalan Research Agency (AGAUR) SGR857, and grants from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under grant agreement ERC-2016-724173. T.G. also receives support from an INB grant (PT17/0009/0023 – ISCIII-SGEFI/ERDF).
• dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
• dc.identifier.citation Hovhannisyan H, Saus E, Ksiezopolska E, Gabaldón T. The transcriptional aftermath in two independently formed hybrids of the opportunistic pathogen Candida orthopsilosis. mSphere. 2020; 5(3):e00282-20. DOI: 10.1128/mSphere.00282-20
• dc.identifier.doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mSphere.00282-20
• dc.identifier.issn 2379-5042
• dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10230/46780
• dc.language.iso eng
• dc.publisher American Society for Microbiology
• dc.relation.ispartof mSphere. 2020; 5(3):e00282-20
• dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/642095
• dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/1PE/BFU2015-67107
• dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/724173
• dc.rights Copyright © 2020 Hovhannisyan et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• dc.rights.accessRights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
• dc.rights.uri https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• dc.subject.keyword Candida orthopsilosis
• dc.subject.keyword Hybridization
• dc.subject.keyword Pathogen
• dc.subject.keyword Transcriptomics
• dc.subject.keyword Yeasts
• dc.title The transcriptional aftermath in two independently formed hybrids of the opportunistic pathogen Candida orthopsilosis
• dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
• dc.type.version info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion