Notorious fungus Aspergillus fumigatus completely scrambles its genome after just one bout of sex

Aspergillus fumigatus produces more meiotic crossovers than any other organism.

This means that the fungus can establish its resistance mechanism after just one cycle of sexual reproduction.

Discovery uncovers a possible cause of the rapid spread of hard-to-treat fungal infections.

It also makes it difficult to identify the source of an infection with a resistant fungus.

Aspergillus fumigatus can produce the highest known number of meiotic crossovers.

Wageningen University will spend a month taking samples of the fungus all over the Netherlands using plastic insect traps.

Participants will return the traps to researchers, and then they'll cultivate the fungus in a lab.