title: Living and thriving on the skin: Malassezia genomes tell the story.
abstract: Our understanding of the interactions between normal skin microbiota and the human host has been greatly extended by recent investigations. In their recent study in mBio, A. Gioti et al. (mBio 4[1]:e00572-12, 2013) sequenced the genome of the atopic eczema-associated yeast, Malassezia sympodialis, and compared its gene content and organization with that of Malassezia globosa, a species implicated in dandruff. Their findings were also contrasted with those previously obtained for Ustilago maydis, which is a close relative but ecologically distinct plant parasite. Besides gaining additional insight into key host-specific adaptations and the particular function and molecular evolution of allergens related to atopic eczema, Gioti et al. also uncovered several lines of evidence that elegantly suggest the presence of an extant sexual cycle, with important implications in disease.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Recursos Microbiológicos (CREM), Departamento de Ciências da Vida, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Caparica, Portugal. madc@fct.unl.pt
authors.forename: Marco A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Coelho
authors.forename: José Paulo
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Sampaio
authors.forename: Paula
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
mesh_terms: D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D016681:Genome, Fungal; D006801:Humans; D008290:Malassezia / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal