PAS stain of a coccidioidomycosis spherule.
Image Credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [Public Domain].

The genome sequence and gene models of Coccidioides posadasii C735 delta SOWgp were not determined by the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), but were downloaded from NCBI on Nov 1, 2019. In order to ensure this genome is comparable to those sequenced by the JGI, we applied filters to remove if present: 1) transposable elements, 2) pseudogenes, 3) alternative transcripts and overlapping models, 4) alleles on secondary scaffolds, and 5) unsupported short models. This resulted in the removal of 105 models from C. posadasii and the generation of the FilteredModels1 gene track. All published models are available in the ExternalModels track. Please note that this copy of the genome is not maintained by NCBI and is therefore not automatically updated.

Unlike most Ascomycete fungi, which live primarily as plant pathogens or plant saprobes, Coccidioides is capable of causing life-threatening disease in immunocompetent mammals, including humans. Coccidioides is an environmentally acquired, dimorphic pathogen. When not infecting a mammal, the fungus lives in the arid, alkaline New World deserts, where it is believed to grow as a filamentous soil saprophyte (Papagiannis 1967; Fisher et al. 2007). Coccidioides is composed of two closely related species, Coccidioides immitis and Coccidioides posadasii, and is a member of the Onygenales, an order characterized by many species that also tend to associate with animals.