Candida albicans requires iron to sustain hyphal growth

Candida albicans is an important opportunistic fungal pathogen of immunocompromised individuals. The ability to switch between yeast and hyphal growth forms is critical for its pathogenesis. Hyphal development in C. albicans requires two temporally linked regulations for initiation and maintenance....

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biochemical and biophysical research communications 2021-07, Vol.561, p.106-112
Main Authors: Luo, Gang, Wang, Tianxu, Zhang, Jingkai, Zhang, Pengju, Lu, Yang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brg1
Candida albicans
Ftr1
Hyphal development
Iron acquisition
Sef1
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Candida albicans is an important opportunistic fungal pathogen of immunocompromised individuals. The ability to switch between yeast and hyphal growth forms is critical for its pathogenesis. Hyphal development in C. albicans requires two temporally linked regulations for initiation and maintenance. Here, we performed transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) to analyze the transcriptional consequences for the two different phases of hyphal development. Genome-wide transcription profiling reveals that the sets associated with hyphal initiation were significantly enriched in genes for hyphal cell wall, biofilm matrix and actin polarization. In addition to hypha-specific genes, numerous genes involved in iron acquisition, such as FTR1 and SEF1, are highly induced specifically during sustained hyphal development even when additional free iron is supplied in the medium. Therefore, iron uptake genes are induced by signals that can support prolonged hyphal development in an iron-independent manner. The induction of iron acquisition genes during hyphal elongation was further confirmed by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR under various hypha-inducing conditions. Remarkably, preventing C. albicans from acquiring iron blocks BRG1 activation, leading to impaired hyphal maintenance, and ectopically expressed BRG1 can sustain hyphal development bypassing the requirement of iron. Our study elucidates an underlying mechanism of how multiple virulence factors are interconnected and are induced simultaneously during infection.
ISSN:0006-291X
1090-2104
DOI:10.1016/j.bbrc.2021.05.039