{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"institution":[{"name":"bioRxiv"}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T14:02:43Z","timestamp":1785420163372,"version":"3.56.0"},"posted":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,20]]},"group-title":"Microbiology","reference-count":44,"publisher":"openRxiv","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,20]],"date-time":"2026-03-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1773964800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"award":["P20GM146584"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["P20GM146584"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04q48ey07","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,19]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>\n                  Fungal pathogens are adapting to increased temperatures altering host-pathogen interactions, disease patterns, and response to the antimicrobial drugs. Here, we show that thermal adaptation to 42\u00b0C leads to reversible changes in fungal colony size and azole drug response in the human pathogenic fungus\n                  <jats:italic>Aspergillus fumigatus<\/jats:italic>\n                  . Importantly, this adaptation is mediated by the lncRNA,\n                  <jats:italic>afu-182,<\/jats:italic>\n                  whose RNA levels negatively correlate with temperature. Growth at a lower temperature or ectopic upregulation of\n                  <jats:italic>afu-182<\/jats:italic>\n                  RNA levels reverses the temperature adaptation. Previously, we have shown that \u0394\n                  <jats:italic>afu-182<\/jats:italic>\n                  strains produce worse disease outcomes in a murine model of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA). Here, more importantly, we show that the overexpression of\n                  <jats:italic>afu-182<\/jats:italic>\n                  in clinically azole-resistant isolates increased survival in a murine model of IPA. Taken together, fungal adaptation to increased temperature leads to a decrease in\n                  <jats:italic>afu-182<\/jats:italic>\n                  RNA levels that is associated with worse disease outcomes upon azole treatment. This provides a framework to take temperature into account when analyzing the rise in azole MIC in environmental and clinical isolates.\n                <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.64898\/2026.03.19.713036","type":"posted-content","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,21]],"date-time":"2026-03-21T05:40:15Z","timestamp":1774071615000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Thermal adaptation crosstalk with azole response through lncRNA in\n                  <i>Aspergillus fumigatus<\/i>"],"prefix":"10.64898","author":[{"given":"Nava Raj","family":"Poudyal","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biological Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA 29634"},{"name":"Eukaryotic Pathogen Innovation Center, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA 29634"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ryan T.","family":"Mehlem","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Eukaryotic Pathogen Innovation Center, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA 29634"},{"name":"Department of Genetics and Biochemistry, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA 29634"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ritu","family":"Devkota","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biological Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA 29634"},{"name":"Eukaryotic Pathogen Innovation Center, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA 29634"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7202-8203","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sourabh","family":"Dhingra","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biological Sciences, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA 29634"},{"name":"Eukaryotic Pathogen Innovation Center, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA 29634"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"54368","reference":[{"key":"2026052203301430000_2026.03.19.713036v2.1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1086\/644642"},{"key":"2026052203301430000_2026.03.19.713036v2.2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Konkel Neabore L . 2024. 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