Hybridization and emergence of virulence in opportunistic human yeast pathogens

Hybridization between different species can result in the emergence of new lineages and adaptive phenotypes. Occasionally, hybridization in fungal organisms can drive the appearance of opportunistic lifestyles or shifts to new hosts, resulting in the emergence of novel pathogens. In recent years, an increasing number of studies have documented the existence of hybrids in diverse yeast clades, including some comprising human pathogens. Comparative and population genomics studies performed on these clades are enabling us to understand what roles hybridization may play in the evolution and emergence of a virulence potential towards humans. Here we survey recent genomic studies on several yeast pathogenic clades where hybrids have been identified, and discuss the broader implications of hybridization in the evolution and emergence of pathogenic lineages. © 2017 The Authors. Yeast published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.This work was supported in part by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, ‘Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa 2013‐2017’ SEV‐2012‐0208, and BFU2015‐67107 cofounded by European Regional Development Fund; from the CERCA programme / Generalitat de Catalunya; from the European Union and ERC Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007‐2013) under grant agreements FP7‐PEOPLE‐2013‐ITN‐606786 ‘ImResFun’ and ERC‐2012‐StG‐310325; and a grant from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska–Curie grant agreement no. H2020‐MSCA‐ITN‐2014‐642095