Highly variable mitochondrial inheritance in intra- and inter-lineage crosses of Cryptococcus gattii

Abstract

<p>The inheritance of mitochondria and their genomes is predominantly uniparental in plants and animals. However, in fungi, the patterns of inheritance can become complex. Interestingly, in <em>Cryptococcus neoformans</em>, the inheritance pattern is predominantly uniparental. Similar to <em>C. neoformans</em>, closely related <em>Cryptococcus gattii </em>is also a pathogenic fungus, except that it is capable of infecting healthy individuals. In this research, PCR-RFLP was employed on progeny of 14 crosses in order to determine if the mtDNA inheritance pattern is the same in <em>Cryptococcus gattii</em> as was found in <em>C. neoformans.</em> Additionally, the effect of genetic distance between mating partners on mitochondrial inheritance was investigated by using a range of strains across three of the four distinct lineages in <em>C. gattii</em>. My results identified highly variable patterns of inheritance among strains and strain combinations, both within and between the analyzed lineages in <em>C. gattii</em>.</p>