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Asiya Gusa

Assistant Professor of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
Molecular Genetics and Microbiology

Selected Publications


Fungal impacts on Earth's ecosystems.

Journal Article Nature · February 2025 Over the past billion years, the fungal kingdom has diversified to more than two million species, with over 95% still undescribed. Beyond the well-known macroscopic mushrooms and microscopic yeast, fungi are heterotrophs that feed on almost any organic car ... Full text Link to item Cite

Single nucleotide polymorphisms are associated with strain-specific virulence differences among clinical isolates of Cryptococcus neoformans.

Journal Article Nat Commun · December 2, 2024 Studies across various pathogens highlight the importance of pathogen genetic differences in disease manifestation. In the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans, sequence type (ST) associates with patient outcome. We performed a meta-analysis of fo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Genome-wide analysis of heat stress-stimulated transposon mobility in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus deneoformans.

Journal Article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · January 24, 2023 We recently reported transposon mutagenesis as a significant driver of spontaneous mutations in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus deneoformans during murine infection. Mutations caused by transposable element (TE) insertion into reporter genes were dr ... Full text Link to item Cite

Dynamic genome plasticity during unisexual reproduction in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus deneoformans.

Journal Article PLoS Genet · November 2021 Genome copy number variation occurs during each mitotic and meiotic cycle and it is crucial for organisms to maintain their natural ploidy. Defects in ploidy transitions can lead to chromosome instability, which is a hallmark of cancer. Ploidy in the haplo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Transposon mobilization in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus is mutagenic during infection and promotes drug resistance in vitro.

Journal Article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · May 5, 2020 When transitioning from the environment, pathogenic microorganisms must adapt rapidly to survive in hostile host conditions. This is especially true for environmental fungi that cause opportunistic infections in immunocompromised patients since these micro ... Full text Link to item Cite

Mitotic Recombination and Adaptive Genomic Changes in Human Pathogenic Fungi.

Journal Article Genes (Basel) · November 7, 2019 Genome rearrangements and ploidy alterations are important for adaptive change in the pathogenic fungal species Candida and Cryptococcus, which propagate primarily through clonal, asexual reproduction. These changes can occur during mitotic growth and lead ... Full text Link to item Cite

Lipooligosaccharide Structure is an Important Determinant in the Resistance of Neisseria Gonorrhoeae to Antimicrobial Agents of Innate Host Defense.

Journal Article Front Microbiol · 2011 The strict human pathogen Neisseria gonorrhoeae has caused the sexually transmitted infection termed gonorrhea for thousands of years. Over the millennia, the gonococcus has likely evolved mechanisms to evade host defense systems that operate on the genita ... Full text Link to item Cite

Regulation of streptokinase expression by CovR/S in Streptococcus pyogenes: CovR acts through a single high-affinity binding site.

Journal Article Microbiology (Reading) · February 2009 The important human pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes (the group A streptococcus or GAS) produces many virulence factors that are regulated by the two-component signal transduction system CovRS (CsrRS). Dissemination of GAS infection originating at the skin ... Full text Link to item Cite

CovR activation of the dipeptide permease promoter (PdppA) in Group A Streptococcus.

Journal Article J Bacteriol · February 2007 CovR, the two-component response regulator of Streptococcus pyogenes (group A streptococcus [GAS]) directly or indirectly represses about 15% of the genome, including genes encoding many virulence factors and itself. Transcriptome analyses also showed that ... Full text Link to item Cite

Phosphorylation of the group A Streptococcal CovR response regulator causes dimerization and promoter-specific recruitment by RNA polymerase.

Journal Article J Bacteriol · July 2006 The group A streptococcus (GAS), Streptococcus pyogenes, is an important human pathogen that causes infections ranging in severity from self-limiting pharyngitis to severe invasive diseases that are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The ... Full text Link to item Cite

Binding of the global response regulator protein CovR to the sag promoter of Streptococcus pyogenes reveals a new mode of CovR-DNA interaction.

Journal Article J Biol Chem · November 25, 2005 CovR (CsrR) is a response regulator of gene expression in Streptococcus pyogenes. It regulates approximately 15% of the genome, including the genes encoding several streptococcal virulence factors, and acts primarily as a repressor rather than an activator ... Full text Link to item Cite

The CovR response regulator of group A streptococcus (GAS) acts directly to repress its own promoter.

Journal Article Mol Microbiol · June 2005 The CovR/S (CsrR/S) two component system is a global regulator of virulence gene expression in the group A streptococcus (GAS, Streptococcus pyogenes). The response regulator, CovR, regulates about 15% of the genes of GAS, including its own operon. Using i ... Full text Link to item Cite

Characterization of the rRNA genes of Ehrlichia chaffeensis and Anaplasma phagocytophila.

Journal Article DNA Cell Biol · August 2002 The rRNA genes of Ehrlichia chaffeensis and Anaplasma phagocytophila have been analyzed. The 16S rRNA genes were previously characterized for both of these agents. Southern hybridization was used to show that there are single copies of both the 16S and 23S ... Full text Link to item Cite

Isolation and characterization of two European strains of Ehrlichia phagocytophila of equine origin.

Journal Article Clin Diagn Lab Immunol · March 2002 We report the isolation and partial genetic characterization of two equine strains of granulocytic Ehrlichia of the genogroup Ehrlichia phagocytophila. Frozen whole-blood samples from two Swedish horses with laboratory-verified granulocytic ehrlichiosis we ... Full text Link to item Cite

Identification of a p28 gene in Ehrlichia ewingii: evaluation of gene for use as a target for a species-specific PCR diagnostic assay.

Journal Article J Clin Microbiol · November 2001 PCR was used to amplify a 537-bp region of an Ehrlichia ewingii gene encoding a homologue of the 28-kDa major antigenic protein (P28) of Ehrlichia chaffeensis. The E. ewingii p28 gene homologue was amplified from DNA extracted from whole blood obtained fro ... Full text Link to item Cite