Genomic epidemiology of antifungal resistance in human and avian isolates of Candida albicans: a pilot study from the One Health perspective

Marianna Domán; Eszter Kaszab; Levente Laczkó; Krisztina Bali; László Makrai; Renátó Kovács; László Majoros; Krisztián Bányai

doi:10.3389/fvets.2024.1345877

Genomic epidemiology of antifungal resistance in human and avian isolates of Candida albicans: a pilot study from the One Health perspective

Front Vet Sci. 2024 Feb 16:11:1345877. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1345877. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Marianna Domán^{1

2}, Eszter Kaszab^{1

2

3}, Levente Laczkó^{3

4}, Krisztina Bali^{1

2}, László Makrai⁵, Renátó Kovács⁶, László Majoros⁶, Krisztián Bányai^{1

2

7}

Affiliations

¹ HUN-REN Veterinary Medical Research Institute, Budapest, Hungary.
² National Laboratory for Infectious Animal Diseases, Antimicrobial Resistance, Veterinary Public Health and Food Chain Safety, Budapest, Hungary.
³ One Health Institute, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary.
⁴ HUN-REN-UD Conservation Biology Research Group, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary.
⁵ Autovakcina Ltd., Budapest, Hungary.
⁶ Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary.
⁷ Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Budapest, Hungary.

Abstract

Stress-induced genomic changes in Candida albicans contribute to the adaptation of this species to various environmental conditions. Variations of the genome composition of animal-origin C. albicans strains are largely unexplored and drug resistance or other selective pressures driving the evolution of these yeasts remained an intriguing question. Comparative genome analysis was carried out to uncover chromosomal aneuploidies and regions with loss of heterozygosity (LOH), two mechanisms that manage genome plasticity. We detected aneuploidy only in human isolates. Bird-derived isolates showed LOH in genes commonly associated with antifungal drug resistance similar to human isolates. Our study suggests that environmental fungicide usage might exert selective pressure on C. albicans infecting animals, thus contributing to the spread of potentially resistant strains between different hosts.

Keywords: aneuploidy; drug resistance; loss of heterozygosity; whole genome sequencing; yeast.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office of Hungary (NKFIH), Grant number PD 128617 and the National Laboratory for Infectious Animal Diseases, Antimicrobial Resistance, Veterinary Public Health and Food Chain Safety, RRF-2.3.1-21-2022-00001. MD was supported by Bolyai János Research Scholarship of Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The funding bodies had no role in the design of the study, in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, and in writing the manuscript.