A highly virulent fungus, which has killed several people in the Pacific Northwest of America and was originally thought to have originated in Australia, has now been shown by Australian researchers to have most likely originated in Brazil.<\/p>\n
Researchers say the potentially deadly variant of the fungus Cryptococcus gattii, which is\u00a0highly adaptive and evolving as it spreads from the tropics to temperate climates, warrants\u00a0global \u201cpublic health vigilance.\u201d<\/p>\n
An international team led by Professor Wieland Meyer from the Westmead Millennium\u00a0Institute for Medical Research found that C. gattii has several genes which make outbreak\u00a0strains more capable of surviving colder environments and also make lung infections caused\u00a0by the fungus more deadly.<\/p>\n
The study\u2019s senior investigator, Professor Meyer is the head of the Molecular Mycology\u00a0Research Laboratory at the Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, Marie Bashir\u00a0Institute at Westmead Millennium Institute, and Professor for Molecular Medical Mycology at\u00a0the University of Sydney, Sydney Medical School at Westmead Hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy closely analyzing the genomes of more than one hundred globally isolated C. gattii\u00a0strains, including the Pacific Northwest and Vancouver Island outbreak strains, we identified\u00a0numerous genes potentially related to habitat adaptation, virulence expression and to clinical\u00a0presentation,\u201d said Professor Meyer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cWe also found evidence that the Pacific Northwest strains originated from South America,\u00a0and not Australia as previously thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
C. gattii is an airborne fungus native to tropical and subtropical regions, including Australia,\u00a0Papua New Guinea, and parts of South America.
\nIt was originally thought to be an exclusively tropical fungus before it was discovered in 1999\u00a0in the temperate environments of Vancouver Island, in the Canadian state of British\u00a0Columbia.<\/p>\nThe Canadian strain not only established a new environmental niche, but soon evolved into\u00a0a new, more virulent, pulmonary disease than quickly spread to mainland Canada and south\u00a0into the state of Washington.<\/p>\n
That was followed by an outbreak in Oregon of a new strain causing deadly lung infections\u00a0\u2014 dubbed \u201cThe Killer Fungus\u201d by the US media \u2014 which also spread throughout the Pacific
\nNorthwest.<\/p>\nIn order to understand the emergence of C. gattii in new environments, a collaborative team\u00a0of 24 researchers from 13 institutions in seven nations conducted one of the largest-ever\u00a0global fungal genome analyses of a specific fungal species.<\/p>\n
The WMI team, in collaboration with the Translational Genomics Research Institute in the\u00a0United States, sequenced 115 genomes collected from 15 countries.<\/p>\n
Professor Meyer said the study, published in the scientific journal mBio, the leading journal\u00a0of the American Society for Microbiology, should form the basis of additional investigations\u00a0about how and why C. gattii disperses and emerges.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy analyzing the genomes of C. gattii globally collected we were able to compare and\u00a0determine the genomic differences that may cause their clinical and ecological changes,\u201d he\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe study identified several new genomic targets for diagnostic tests, and possible new\u00a0targets for therapeutic drugs and preventative vaccines.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The study\u2019s co-investigator Professor Tania Sorrell, who is the Director of WMI\u2019s Centre for\u00a0Infectious Diseases and Microbiology and Director of the Marie Bashir Institute at the\u00a0University of Sydney, said the study suggested public health officials should be on the\u00a0lookout for C. gattii, even in regions where it is not thought to be endemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe genetic ability of the fungus to adapt to new environments, as shown by our research,\u00a0suggests that a high level of vigilance would be prudent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Professor Sorrell said that new tests developed for the study were making it easier to detect\u00a0C. gattii and other fungi, and could lead to better monitoring and treatments.<\/p>\n
\u201cFurther elucidation and characterization of these genetic features may lead to improved\u00a0diagnostics and therapies for infections caused by this continually evolving fungus.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A highly virulent fungus, which has killed several people in the Pacific Northwest of America and was originally thought to have originated in Australia, has now been shown by Australian researchers to have most likely originated in Brazil. Researchers say the potentially deadly variant of the fungus Cryptococcus gattii, which is\u00a0highly adaptive and evolving as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2446,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"categories":[19],"class_list":["post-2501","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cat-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}