Paracoccidioides lutzii Pb01 Transcriptome or Gene expression. Paracoccidioides lutzii Pb01

Several human pathogenic fungi inhabit the soil, where they live as saprophytes with no need for a mammalian host to complete their life cycle. Selective pressures driving the emergence or maintenance of virulence of soil fungi is their interaction with soil predators such as amoebae. In this study, we evaluated the interaction of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis, a thermodimorphic pathogenic fungus endemic to Latin America, with different soil amoebae species. Analysis of the interaction of P. brasiliensis yeast cells, cultured in vitro for prolonged time, with Acanthamoeba castellanii showed that the amoeba efficiently ingested, killed and digested the fungus, an important contrast with what was observed for other pathogenic fungi. The global gene expression of the fungus grown on before and after passage in amoeba was measured via RNAseq.