Interspecific hybridization substantially alters genotypes and phenotypes and can give rise to new lineages. Hybrid isolates that differ from their parental species in infection-relevant traits have been observed in several human-pathogenic yeasts and plant-pathogenic filamentous fungi but have yet to be found in human-pathogenic filamentous fungi. We discovered 6 clinical isolates from patients with aspergillosis originally identified as Aspergillus nidulans (section Nidulantes) that are actually allodiploid hybrids formed by the fusion of Aspergillus spinulosporus with an unknown close relative of Aspergillus quadrilineatus, both in section Nidulantes. Evolutionary genomic analyses revealed that these isolates belong to Aspergillus latus, an allodiploid hybrid species. Characterization of diverse infection-relevant traits further showed that A. latus hybrid isolates are genomically and phenotypically heterogeneous but also differ from A. nidulans, A. spinulosporus, and A. quadrilineatus. These results suggest that allodiploid hybridization contributes to the genomic and phenotypic diversity of filamentous fungal pathogens of humans.

种间杂交会显着改变基因型和表型，并可以产生新的谱系。在几种人类致病酵母和植物致病丝状真菌中观察到了在感染相关性状上与其亲本物种不同的杂种分离物，但尚未在人类致病丝状真菌中发现。我们从最初被鉴定为构巢曲霉（Nidulantes部分）的曲霉病患者中发现了 6 个临床分离株，它们实际上是由棘孢曲霉与未知的四线曲霉近亲融合形成的异源二倍体杂种，均在Nidulantes部分。进化基因组分析表明，这些分离物属于异源二倍体杂交种Aspergillus latus。各种感染相关性状的表征进一步表明，松果蝇杂种分离株在基因组和表型上具有异质性，但也不同于构巢曲霉、棘孢曲霉和四线曲霉。这些结果表明异源二倍体杂交有助于人类丝状真菌病原体的基因组和表型多样性。