The Microevolution of Antifungal Drug Resistance in Pathogenic Fungi

The mortality rates of invasive fungal infections remain high because of the limited number of antifungal drugs available and antifungal drug resistance, which can rapidly evolve during treatment. Mutations in key resistance genes such as ERG11 were postulated to be the predominant cause of antifung...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Microorganisms (Basel) 2023-11, Vol.11 (11), p.2757
Main Author: Boyce, Kylie J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
adaptation
Aneuploidy
Antifungal agents
antifungal drugs
Biosynthesis
Drug resistance
Drug resistance in microorganisms
Enzymes
Fungal infections
Fungi
Fungi, Pathogenic
Fungicides
Gene sequencing
Genes
Genetic aspects
Genomes
Health aspects
microevolution
Mortality
Mutation
Natural history
pathogen
Phenotypes
resistance
Sterols
Transcription factors
Whole genome sequencing
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The mortality rates of invasive fungal infections remain high because of the limited number of antifungal drugs available and antifungal drug resistance, which can rapidly evolve during treatment. Mutations in key resistance genes such as ERG11 were postulated to be the predominant cause of antifungal drug resistance in the clinic. However, recent advances in whole genome sequencing have revealed that there are multiple mechanisms leading to the microevolution of resistance. In many fungal species, resistance can emerge through ERG11-independent mechanisms and through the accumulation of mutations in many genes to generate a polygenic resistance phenotype. In addition, genome sequencing has revealed that full or partial aneuploidy commonly occurs in clinical or microevolved in vitro isolates to confer antifungal resistance. This review will provide an overview of the mutations known to be selected during the adaptive microevolution of antifungal drug resistance and focus on how recent advances in genome sequencing technology have enhanced our understanding of this process.
ISSN:2076-2607
2076-2607
DOI:10.3390/microorganisms11112757