Publications

  1. Yadav, V., Carl, K., Freedman, E., Heitman, J., Washington, E. J. Trehalose-6-phosphate synthase promotes thermotolerance by governing glycolytic flux in Cryptococcus deneoformans. bioRxiv. 2026; 2026.07.15.738695. PMID: 42539174. (In revision for Genetics)

  2. Hamad, H. M., Specht, C. A., Carlson, D., Yadav, V., Upadhya, R., Heitman, J., Gabel, C., O’Donnell, P., Karlath, F. A. P., Qamar, F., Newstein, M., and Levitz, S. M. Primary cryptococcal cellulitis with high antigenemia in an immunocompromised Host: A case report and laboratory investigation of the causative Cryptococcus neoformans strain. Open Forum Infectious Diseases. 2026; 13(6):ofag334.

  3. Yu, S.*, Yu, S-R.*, Jin, J-H.*, Choi, M. K.*, Yadav, V.*, Choi, H. S., Kim, E-S., Kim, H-W., Jeong, J-S., Kim, D-K., Heitman, J., Cho, H-S., Lee, K-T., and Bahn, Y-S. The protein phosphatase 2C domain contributes to the pathobiological function of adenylyl cyclase in Cryptococcus neoformans. Communications Biology(In press). Available on bioRxiv. 2025; 2025.12.10.693573. PMID: 41415369.

  4. ‍Xiong, L., Yadav, V., Sun, S., and Heitman, J. Dissecting the homeodomain MAT locus and engineering novel tripolar and bipolar mating systems in Cryptococcus amylolentus. mBio. 2026; 0:e00059-26. PMID: 41841731.

  5. ‍Yadav, V., and Heitman, J. Thermoregulation network governing virulence of a critical human fungal pathogen. bioRxiv. 2025; 2025.08.18.670910. PMID: 40894570. (In revision for EMBO Journal).

  6. ‍Myers, J. M., Schulz, F., Rahimlou, S., Yadav, V., Amses, K. R., Simmons, D. R., Sun, S., Orozco-Quime, M., Heitman, J., Stajich, J. E., James, T. Y. Discovery of giant viruses as past and present infections of zoosporic fungi. PLOS Biology. 2026; 24(8):e3003937. PMID: 42640984.

  7. ‍Miao, Y.*, Yadav, V.*, Shadrick, W., Liu, J., Jenner, A., Nichols, C. B., Gee, C., Schaefer, M., Tenor, J. L., Perfect, J., Lee, R., Brennan, R. G., and Washington, E. J. Inhibitors of trehalose-6-phosphate synthase activity in fungal pathogens compromise thermal tolerance pathways. mBio. 2025; 16:e01795-25. PMID: 40852984.

  8. ‍Yadav, V., Averette, A. F., Upadhya, R., and Heitman, J. Calcineurin regulates the cytokinesis machinery during thermal stress in Cryptococcus deneoformans. PNAS. 2025; 122(21):e2503751122. PMID: 40397671. Highlighted in “Commentary” in PNAS (PMID: 40549923).

  9. ‍Huang, J., Larmore, C.J., Priest, S.J., Xu, Z., Dietrich, F.S., Yadav, V., Magwene, P.M., Sun, S., Heitman, J. Distinct evolutionary trajectories following loss of RNA interference in Cryptococcus neoformans. PNAS. 2024; 121(47):e2416656121. PMID: 39536081.

  10. Yadav, V., Mohan, R.$, Sun, S., Heitman, J. Calcineurin contributes to RNAi-mediated transgene silencing and small interfering RNA production in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans. Genetics. 2024; 226(3): iyae010. PMID: 37546757.

  11. Yadav, V.#, and Heitman, J.# Calcineurin: The Achilles' heel of fungal pathogens. PLOS Pathogens (Pearls). 2023; 19(7): e1011445. PMID: 37410706.

  12. Yadav, V., Sun, S., and Heitman, J. On the evolution of variation in sexual reproduction through the prism of eukaryotic microbes. PNAS. 2023;120(10): e2219120120. PMID: 36867686.

  13. ‍Gusa, A., Yadav, V., Roth, C., Williams, J.D., Shouse, E.M., Magwene, P., Heitman, J., Jinks-Robertson, S. Genome-wide analysis of heat stress-stimulated transposon mobility in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus deneoformans. PNAS. 2022; 120(4): e2209831120. PMID: 36669112. Featured in the news.

  14. ‍ Priest S.J., Yadav, V.*, Roth, C.*, Dahlmann, T.A., Kück, U., Magwene, P.M., and Heitman, J. Uncontrolled transposition following RNAi loss causes hypermutation and antifungal drug resistance in clinical isolates of Cryptococcus neoformans. Nature Microbiology. 2022; 7: 1239–1251. PMID: 35918426. Highlighted in “News & Views” in Nature Microbiology (PMID: 35918419).

  15. Yadav, V., and Heitman, J. On fruits and fungi: A risk of antifungal usage in food storage and distribution in driving drug resistance in Candida auris. mBio. 2022;13(3): e00739-22. PMID: 35575501.

  16. ‍Yadav, V., Sun, S., and Heitman, J. Uniparental nuclear inheritance following bisexual mating in fungi. eLife. 2021; 10: e66234. PMID: 34338631. Highlighted in an “eLife digest”.

  17. ‍Schotanus, K., Yadav, V., and Heitman, J. Epigenetic dynamics of centromeres and neocentromeres in Cryptococcus deuterogattii. PLOS Genetics. 2021; 17(8): e1009743. PMID: 34464380.

  18. ‍Fu, C., Davy, A., Holmes, S., Sun, S., Yadav, V., Gusa, A., Coelho, M.A., and Heitman, J. Dynamic genome plasticity during unisexual reproduction in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus deneoformans. PLoS Genetics. 2021; 17(11): e1009935. PMID: 34843473.

  19. Priest, S. J., Yadav, V., and Heitman, J. Advances in understanding the evolution of fungal genome architecture. F1000 Research. 2020; 9: F1000 Faculty Rev-776. PMID: 32765832.

  20. ‍Yadav, V., Sun, S., Coelho, M.A., and Heitman, J. Centromere scission drives chromosome shuffling and reproductive isolation. PNAS. 2020; 117(14): 7917-7928. PMID: 32193338.

  21. ‍Fang, Y., Coelho, M.A., Shu. H., Schotanus, K., Thimmappa, B.C., Yadav, V., Chen, H., Malc, E.P., Wang, J., Mieczkowski, P.A., Kronmiller, B., Tyler, B.M., Sanyal, K., Dong, S., Nowrousian, M., and Heitman, J. Long transposon-rich centromeres in an oomycete reveal divergence of centromere features in Stramenopila-Alveolata-Rhizaria lineages. PLOS Genetics. 2020; 16(3): e1008646. PMID: 32150559.

  22. Chang Z., Yadav, V., Lee, S.C., and Heitman, J. Epigenetic mechanisms of drug resistance in fungi. Fungal Genet Biol. 2019; 132(2019): 103253. PMID: 31325489.

  23. ‍Yadav, V.*, Yang, F.*, Reza, M.H., Liu, S., Valent, B., Sanyal, K., and Naqvi, N.I. Cellular dynamics and genomic identity of centromeres in the cereal blast fungus. mBio. 2019; 10(4): e01581-19. PMID: 31363034.

  24. ‍Hoque, J., Yadav, V., Prakash, R.G., Sanyal, K., and Haldar, J. Dual function polymer-silver nanocomposites for rapid killing of microbes and inhibiting biofilms. ACS Biomat SciEng. 2019; 5(1): 81-91. PMID: 33405872.

  25. ‍Yadav, V.#, and Sanyal, K.# Sad1 spatio-temporally regulates kinetochore clustering to ensure high fidelity chromosome segregation in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans. mSphere. 2018; 3(4): e00190-18. PMID: 29976642.

  26. ‍Yadav, V., Sun, S., Billmyre, R.B., Thimmappa, B.C., Shea, T., Lintner, R., Bakkeren, G., Cuomo, C.A., Heitman, J., and Sanyal, K. RNAi is a critical determinant of centromere evolution in closely related fungi. PNAS. 2018; 115(12): 3108-3113. PMID: 29507212.

  27. Yadav, V., Sreekumar, L., Guin, K., and Sanyal, K. Five pillars of centromeric chromatin in fungal pathogens. PLOS Pathogens (Pearls). 2018; 14(8): e1007150. PMID: 30138484.

  28. Sun, S., Yadav, V., Billmyre, R.B., Cuomo, C.A., Nowrousian, M., Wang, L., Souciet, J.-L., Boekhout, T., Porcel, B., Wincker, P., Granek, J.A., Sanyal, K., and Heitman, J. Fungal mating system transitions driven by chromosomal translocations involving intercentromeric recombination. PLOS Biology. 2017; 15(8): e2002527. PMID: 28800596. Featured in the news.

  29. ‍Ghosh, C., Yadav, V., Younis, W., Mohammad, H., Hegazy, Y.A., Seleem, M.N., Sanyal, K., and Haldar, J. Aryl-alkyl-lysines: membrane-active fungicides that act against biofilms of Candida albicans. ACS Infect Dis. 2017; 3(4): 293-301. PMID: 28238268.

  30. ‍Datta, A.*, Yadav, V.*, Ghosh, A., Choi, J., Bhattacharyya, D., Kar, R.K., Ilyas, H., Dutta, A., An, E., Mukhopadhyay, J., Lee, D., Sanyal, K., Ramamoorthy, A., and Bhunia, A. Mode of action of a designed antimicrobial peptide: high potency against Cryptococcus neoformans. Biophysical Journal. 2016; 111(8): 1724-1737. PMID: 27760359.

  31. ‍Hoque, J., Adhikary, U., Yadav, V., Samaddar, S., Konai, M.M., Prakash, R.G., Paramanandham, K., Shome, B.R., Sanyal, K., and Haldar, J. Chitosan derivatives active against multidrug-resistant bacteria and pathogenic fungi: in vivo evaluation as topical antimicrobials. ACS Mol Pharm. 2016; 13(10): 3578-3589. PMID: 27589087.

  32. ‍Sutradhar, S.*, Yadav, V.*, Sridhar, S.*, Sreekumar, L., Bhattacharyya, D., Ghosh, S.K., Paul, R., and Sanyal, K. A comprehensive model to predict mitotic division in budding yeasts. Mol Biol Cell. 2015; 26(22): 3954-65. PMID: 26310442. Highlighted as a “Cover Image” article.

  33. ‍Hoque, J., Akkapeddi, P., Yadav, V., Manjunath, G.B., Uppu, D.S., Konai, M.M., Yarlagadda, V., Sanyal, K., and Haldar, J. Broad spectrum antibacterial and antifungal polymeric paint materials: synthesis, structure-activity relationship, and membrane-active mode of action. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2015; 7(3): 1804-15. PMID: 25541751.

  34. Janbon, G., Ormerod, K. L., Paulet, D., Byrnes III, E. J., Yadav, V., et al. Analysis of the genome and transcriptome of Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii reveals complex RNA expression and microevolution leading to virulence attenuation. PLOS Genetics. 2014; 10(4): e1004261. PMID: 24743168.

  35. ‍Kozubowski, L.*, Yadav, V.*, Chatterjee, G., Sridhar, S., Yamaguchi, M., Kawamoto, S., Bose, I., Heitman, J., and Sanyal, K. Ordered kinetochore assembly in the human pathogenic basidiomycetous budding yeast Cryptococcus neoformans. mBio. 2013; 4(5): e00614-13. PMID: 24085781. Highlighted as “Cover Image” article.

  36. Roy, B., Varshney, N., Yadav, V., and Sanyal, K. The process of kinetochore assembly in yeasts. FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2013; 338(2): 107-17. PMID: 23039831.