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Genetic Regulators and Physiological Significance of Glycogen Storage in Candida albicans

The dimorphic human fungal pathogen C. albicans has broad metabolic flexibility that allows it to adapt to the nutrient conditions in different host habitats. C. albicans builds large carbohydrate stores (glycogen) at the end of exponential growth and begins consumption of stored carbohydrates when...

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Autores principales: Zeitz, Marcus A., Tanveer, Zainab, Openshaw, Anatole T., Schmidt, Martin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6958490/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31671578
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof5040102
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author Zeitz, Marcus A.
Tanveer, Zainab
Openshaw, Anatole T.
Schmidt, Martin
author_facet Zeitz, Marcus A.
Tanveer, Zainab
Openshaw, Anatole T.
Schmidt, Martin
author_sort Zeitz, Marcus A.
collection PubMed
description The dimorphic human fungal pathogen C. albicans has broad metabolic flexibility that allows it to adapt to the nutrient conditions in different host habitats. C. albicans builds large carbohydrate stores (glycogen) at the end of exponential growth and begins consumption of stored carbohydrates when nutrients become limiting. The expression of genes required for the successful transition between host environments, including the factors controlling glycogen content, is controlled by protein kinase A signaling through the transcription factor Efg1. In addition to the inability to transition to hyphal growth, C. albicans efg1 mutants have low glycogen content and reduced long-term survival, suggesting that carbohydrate storage is required for viability during prolonged culture. To test this assumption, we constructed a glycogen-deficient C. albicans mutant and assessed its viability during extended culture. Pathways and additional genetic factors controlling C. albicans glycogen synthesis were identified through the screening of mutant libraries for strains with low glycogen content. Finally, a part of the Efg1-regulon was screened for mutants with a shortened long-term survival phenotype. We found that glycogen deficiency does not affect long-term survival, growth, metabolic flexibility or morphology of C. albicans. We conclude that glycogen is not an important contributor to C. albicans fitness.
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spelling pubmed-69584902020-01-23 Genetic Regulators and Physiological Significance of Glycogen Storage in Candida albicans Zeitz, Marcus A. Tanveer, Zainab Openshaw, Anatole T. Schmidt, Martin J Fungi (Basel) Article The dimorphic human fungal pathogen C. albicans has broad metabolic flexibility that allows it to adapt to the nutrient conditions in different host habitats. C. albicans builds large carbohydrate stores (glycogen) at the end of exponential growth and begins consumption of stored carbohydrates when nutrients become limiting. The expression of genes required for the successful transition between host environments, including the factors controlling glycogen content, is controlled by protein kinase A signaling through the transcription factor Efg1. In addition to the inability to transition to hyphal growth, C. albicans efg1 mutants have low glycogen content and reduced long-term survival, suggesting that carbohydrate storage is required for viability during prolonged culture. To test this assumption, we constructed a glycogen-deficient C. albicans mutant and assessed its viability during extended culture. Pathways and additional genetic factors controlling C. albicans glycogen synthesis were identified through the screening of mutant libraries for strains with low glycogen content. Finally, a part of the Efg1-regulon was screened for mutants with a shortened long-term survival phenotype. We found that glycogen deficiency does not affect long-term survival, growth, metabolic flexibility or morphology of C. albicans. We conclude that glycogen is not an important contributor to C. albicans fitness. MDPI 2019-10-30 /pmc/articles/PMC6958490/ /pubmed/31671578 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof5040102 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Zeitz, Marcus A.
Tanveer, Zainab
Openshaw, Anatole T.
Schmidt, Martin
Genetic Regulators and Physiological Significance of Glycogen Storage in Candida albicans
title Genetic Regulators and Physiological Significance of Glycogen Storage in Candida albicans
title_full Genetic Regulators and Physiological Significance of Glycogen Storage in Candida albicans
title_fullStr Genetic Regulators and Physiological Significance of Glycogen Storage in Candida albicans
title_full_unstemmed Genetic Regulators and Physiological Significance of Glycogen Storage in Candida albicans
title_short Genetic Regulators and Physiological Significance of Glycogen Storage in Candida albicans
title_sort genetic regulators and physiological significance of glycogen storage in candida albicans
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6958490/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31671578
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof5040102
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