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Variation in Cell Surface Hydrophobicity among Cryptococcus neoformans Strains Influences Interactions with Amoebas
Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii are pathogenic fungi that cause significant morbidity and mortality. Cell surface hydrophobicity (CSH) is a biophysical parameter that influences the adhesion of fungal cells or spores to biotic and abiotic surfaces. C. neoformans is encased by polysac...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
American Society for Microbiology
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7193044/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32350094 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mSphere.00310-20 |
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author | Vij, Raghav Danchik, Carina Crawford, Conor Dragotakes, Quigly Casadevall, Arturo |
author_facet | Vij, Raghav Danchik, Carina Crawford, Conor Dragotakes, Quigly Casadevall, Arturo |
author_sort | Vij, Raghav |
collection | PubMed |
description | Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii are pathogenic fungi that cause significant morbidity and mortality. Cell surface hydrophobicity (CSH) is a biophysical parameter that influences the adhesion of fungal cells or spores to biotic and abiotic surfaces. C. neoformans is encased by polysaccharide capsule that is highly hydrophilic and is a critical determinant of virulence. In this study, we report large differences in the CSH of some C. neoformans and C. gattii strains. The capsular polysaccharides of C. neoformans strains differ in repeating motifs and therefore vary in the number of hydroxyl groups, which, along with higher-order structure of the capsule, may contribute to the variation in hydrophobicity that we observed. We found that cell wall composition, in the context of chitin-chitosan content, does not influence CSH. For C. neoformans, CSH correlated with phagocytosis by natural soil predator Acanthamoeba castellanii. Furthermore, capsular binding of the protective antibody (18B7), but not the nonprotective antibody (13F1), altered the CSH of C. neoformans strains. Variability in CSH could be an important characteristic in comparing the biological properties of cryptococcal strains. IMPORTANCE The interaction of a microbial cell with its environment is influenced by the biophysical properties of a cell. The affinity of the cell surface for water, defined by the cell surface hydrophobicity (CSH), is a biophysical parameter that varies among different strains of Cryptococcus neoformans. The CSH influences the phagocytosis of the yeast by its natural predator in the soil, the amoeba. Studying variation in biophysical properties like CSH gives us insight into the dynamic host-predator interaction and host-pathogen interaction in a damage-response framework. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7193044 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | American Society for Microbiology |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-71930442020-05-07 Variation in Cell Surface Hydrophobicity among Cryptococcus neoformans Strains Influences Interactions with Amoebas Vij, Raghav Danchik, Carina Crawford, Conor Dragotakes, Quigly Casadevall, Arturo mSphere Research Article Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii are pathogenic fungi that cause significant morbidity and mortality. Cell surface hydrophobicity (CSH) is a biophysical parameter that influences the adhesion of fungal cells or spores to biotic and abiotic surfaces. C. neoformans is encased by polysaccharide capsule that is highly hydrophilic and is a critical determinant of virulence. In this study, we report large differences in the CSH of some C. neoformans and C. gattii strains. The capsular polysaccharides of C. neoformans strains differ in repeating motifs and therefore vary in the number of hydroxyl groups, which, along with higher-order structure of the capsule, may contribute to the variation in hydrophobicity that we observed. We found that cell wall composition, in the context of chitin-chitosan content, does not influence CSH. For C. neoformans, CSH correlated with phagocytosis by natural soil predator Acanthamoeba castellanii. Furthermore, capsular binding of the protective antibody (18B7), but not the nonprotective antibody (13F1), altered the CSH of C. neoformans strains. Variability in CSH could be an important characteristic in comparing the biological properties of cryptococcal strains. IMPORTANCE The interaction of a microbial cell with its environment is influenced by the biophysical properties of a cell. The affinity of the cell surface for water, defined by the cell surface hydrophobicity (CSH), is a biophysical parameter that varies among different strains of Cryptococcus neoformans. The CSH influences the phagocytosis of the yeast by its natural predator in the soil, the amoeba. Studying variation in biophysical properties like CSH gives us insight into the dynamic host-predator interaction and host-pathogen interaction in a damage-response framework. American Society for Microbiology 2020-04-29 /pmc/articles/PMC7193044/ /pubmed/32350094 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mSphere.00310-20 Text en Copyright © 2020 Vij et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Research Article Vij, Raghav Danchik, Carina Crawford, Conor Dragotakes, Quigly Casadevall, Arturo Variation in Cell Surface Hydrophobicity among Cryptococcus neoformans Strains Influences Interactions with Amoebas |
title | Variation in Cell Surface Hydrophobicity among Cryptococcus neoformans Strains Influences Interactions with Amoebas |
title_full | Variation in Cell Surface Hydrophobicity among Cryptococcus neoformans Strains Influences Interactions with Amoebas |
title_fullStr | Variation in Cell Surface Hydrophobicity among Cryptococcus neoformans Strains Influences Interactions with Amoebas |
title_full_unstemmed | Variation in Cell Surface Hydrophobicity among Cryptococcus neoformans Strains Influences Interactions with Amoebas |
title_short | Variation in Cell Surface Hydrophobicity among Cryptococcus neoformans Strains Influences Interactions with Amoebas |
title_sort | variation in cell surface hydrophobicity among cryptococcus neoformans strains influences interactions with amoebas |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7193044/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32350094 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mSphere.00310-20 |
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