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On and Off: Epigenetic Regulation of C. albicans Morphological Switches

The human fungal pathogen Candida albicans is a dimorphic opportunistic pathogen that colonises most of the human population without creating any harm. However, this fungus can also cause life-threatening infections in immunocompromised individuals. The ability to successfully colonise different hos...

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Autores principales: Iracane, Elise, Vega-Estévez, Samuel, Buscaino, Alessia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8619191/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34832617
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10111463
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author Iracane, Elise
Vega-Estévez, Samuel
Buscaino, Alessia
author_facet Iracane, Elise
Vega-Estévez, Samuel
Buscaino, Alessia
author_sort Iracane, Elise
collection PubMed
description The human fungal pathogen Candida albicans is a dimorphic opportunistic pathogen that colonises most of the human population without creating any harm. However, this fungus can also cause life-threatening infections in immunocompromised individuals. The ability to successfully colonise different host niches is critical for establishing infections and pathogenesis. C. albicans can live and divide in various morphological forms critical for its survival in the host. Indeed, C. albicans can grow as both yeast and hyphae and can form biofilms containing hyphae. The transcriptional regulatory network governing the switching between these different forms is complex but well understood. In contrast, non-DNA based epigenetic modulation is emerging as a crucial but still poorly studied regulatory mechanism of morphological transition. This review explores our current understanding of chromatin-mediated epigenetic regulation of the yeast to hyphae switch and biofilm formation. We highlight how modification of chromatin structure and non-coding RNAs contribute to these morphological transitions.
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spelling pubmed-86191912021-11-27 On and Off: Epigenetic Regulation of C. albicans Morphological Switches Iracane, Elise Vega-Estévez, Samuel Buscaino, Alessia Pathogens Review The human fungal pathogen Candida albicans is a dimorphic opportunistic pathogen that colonises most of the human population without creating any harm. However, this fungus can also cause life-threatening infections in immunocompromised individuals. The ability to successfully colonise different host niches is critical for establishing infections and pathogenesis. C. albicans can live and divide in various morphological forms critical for its survival in the host. Indeed, C. albicans can grow as both yeast and hyphae and can form biofilms containing hyphae. The transcriptional regulatory network governing the switching between these different forms is complex but well understood. In contrast, non-DNA based epigenetic modulation is emerging as a crucial but still poorly studied regulatory mechanism of morphological transition. This review explores our current understanding of chromatin-mediated epigenetic regulation of the yeast to hyphae switch and biofilm formation. We highlight how modification of chromatin structure and non-coding RNAs contribute to these morphological transitions. MDPI 2021-11-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8619191/ /pubmed/34832617 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10111463 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Iracane, Elise
Vega-Estévez, Samuel
Buscaino, Alessia
On and Off: Epigenetic Regulation of C. albicans Morphological Switches
title On and Off: Epigenetic Regulation of C. albicans Morphological Switches
title_full On and Off: Epigenetic Regulation of C. albicans Morphological Switches
title_fullStr On and Off: Epigenetic Regulation of C. albicans Morphological Switches
title_full_unstemmed On and Off: Epigenetic Regulation of C. albicans Morphological Switches
title_short On and Off: Epigenetic Regulation of C. albicans Morphological Switches
title_sort on and off: epigenetic regulation of c. albicans morphological switches
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8619191/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34832617
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/pathogens10111463
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