1. Global Analysis of the Fungal Microbiome in Cystic Fibrosis Patients Reveals Loss of Function of the Transcriptional Repressor Nrg1 as a Mechanism of Pathogen Adaptation
- Author
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Pauline W. Wang, David S. Guttman, Ron Ammar, Corey Nislow, Leah E. Cowen, Shawn T. Clark, Anuradha Surendra, D. Elizabeth Tullis, David M. Hwang, Cathy Collins, Sang Hu Kim, and Julia K. Copeland
- Subjects
lcsh:Immunologic diseases. Allergy ,Cystic Fibrosis ,Neuregulin-1 ,Immunology ,Population ,Adaptation, Biological ,Antifungal drug ,medicine.disease_cause ,Microbiology ,Cystic fibrosis ,Drug Resistance, Fungal ,Virology ,Genetics ,medicine ,Humans ,Pseudomonas Infections ,Microbiome ,education ,Candida albicans ,lcsh:QH301-705.5 ,Molecular Biology ,education.field_of_study ,biology ,Pseudomonas aeruginosa ,Microbiota ,Fungi ,Sputum ,Fungal genetics ,biology.organism_classification ,medicine.disease ,3. Good health ,lcsh:Biology (General) ,Mutation ,Parasitology ,Host adaptation ,lcsh:RC581-607 ,Research Article - Abstract
The microbiome shapes diverse facets of human biology and disease, with the importance of fungi only beginning to be appreciated. Microbial communities infiltrate diverse anatomical sites as with the respiratory tract of healthy humans and those with diseases such as cystic fibrosis, where chronic colonization and infection lead to clinical decline. Although fungi are frequently recovered from cystic fibrosis patient sputum samples and have been associated with deterioration of lung function, understanding of species and population dynamics remains in its infancy. Here, we coupled high-throughput sequencing of the ribosomal RNA internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) with phenotypic and genotypic analyses of fungi from 89 sputum samples from 28 cystic fibrosis patients. Fungal communities defined by sequencing were concordant with those defined by culture-based analyses of 1,603 isolates from the same samples. Different patients harbored distinct fungal communities. There were detectable trends, however, including colonization with Candida and Aspergillus species, which was not perturbed by clinical exacerbation or treatment. We identified considerable inter- and intra-species phenotypic variation in traits important for host adaptation, including antifungal drug resistance and morphogenesis. While variation in drug resistance was largely between species, striking variation in morphogenesis emerged within Candida species. Filamentation was uncoupled from inducing cues in 28 Candida isolates recovered from six patients. The filamentous isolates were resistant to the filamentation-repressive effects of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, implicating inter-kingdom interactions as the selective force. Genome sequencing revealed that all but one of the filamentous isolates harbored mutations in the transcriptional repressor NRG1; such mutations were necessary and sufficient for the filamentous phenotype. Six independent nrg1 mutations arose in Candida isolates from different patients, providing a poignant example of parallel evolution. Together, this combined clinical-genomic approach provides a high-resolution portrait of the fungal microbiome of cystic fibrosis patient lungs and identifies a genetic basis of pathogen adaptation., Author Summary Microbial cells vastly outnumber human cells in our bodies, yet we are only beginning to understand how these microbes influence human health and disease. One disease for which microbial communities are especially important is cystic fibrosis, where persistent lung infections can be lethal. Fungi are associated with poor respiratory function, but how fungal communities change with disease progression or treatment remains enigmatic. Here, we assess the dynamics of fungal communities by combining high-throughput sequencing of sputum samples from 28 patients with detailed analysis of phenotypes and genotypes of 1,603 fungal isolates. We found stable communities dominated by Candida and Aspergillus, and diversity in traits important for host adaptation. Antifungal drug resistance varied largely between species, while morphogenesis varied within species. For Candida species, the capacity to transition between yeast and filaments is a key virulence trait that is normally regulated by inducing cues, however, 28 isolates grew as filaments without such cues. Filamentation was due to loss-of-function mutations in the transcriptional regulator NRG1 in most isolates, which conferred resistance to the filament-repressive effects of a common bacterial pathogen. This work provides a portrait of the fungal microbiome associated with a lethal disease, and illuminates a genetic basis of pathogen adaptation.
- Published
- 2015