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Characterization of the Growth and Morphology of a BSL-2 Coccidioides posadasii Strain That Persists in the Parasitic Life Cycle at Ambient CO(2)
Coccidioides is a dimorphic fungus responsible for Valley Fever and is the cause of severe morbidity and mortality in the infected population. Although there is some insight into the genes, pathways, and growth media involved in the parasitic to saprophytic growth transition, the exact determinants...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9145405/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35628711 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof8050455 |
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author | Garcia, Javier A. Vu, Kiem Thompson, George R. Gelli, Angie |
author_facet | Garcia, Javier A. Vu, Kiem Thompson, George R. Gelli, Angie |
author_sort | Garcia, Javier A. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Coccidioides is a dimorphic fungus responsible for Valley Fever and is the cause of severe morbidity and mortality in the infected population. Although there is some insight into the genes, pathways, and growth media involved in the parasitic to saprophytic growth transition, the exact determinants that govern this switch are largely unknown. In this work, we examined the growth and morphology of a Coccidioides posadasii strain (C. posadasii S/E) that efficiently produces spherules and endospores and persists in the parasitic life cycle at ambient CO(2). We demonstrated that C. posadasii S/E remains virulent in an insect infection model. Surprisingly, under spherule-inducing conditions, the C. posadasii S/E culture was found to be completely hyphal. Differential interference contrast (DIC) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed unexpected cellular changes in this strain including cell wall remodeling and formation of septal pores with Woronin bodies. Our study suggests that the C. posadasii S/E strain is a useful BSL-2 model for studying mechanisms underlying the parasitic to saprophytic growth transition—a morphological switch that can impact the pathogenicity of the organism in the host. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9145405 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-91454052022-05-29 Characterization of the Growth and Morphology of a BSL-2 Coccidioides posadasii Strain That Persists in the Parasitic Life Cycle at Ambient CO(2) Garcia, Javier A. Vu, Kiem Thompson, George R. Gelli, Angie J Fungi (Basel) Article Coccidioides is a dimorphic fungus responsible for Valley Fever and is the cause of severe morbidity and mortality in the infected population. Although there is some insight into the genes, pathways, and growth media involved in the parasitic to saprophytic growth transition, the exact determinants that govern this switch are largely unknown. In this work, we examined the growth and morphology of a Coccidioides posadasii strain (C. posadasii S/E) that efficiently produces spherules and endospores and persists in the parasitic life cycle at ambient CO(2). We demonstrated that C. posadasii S/E remains virulent in an insect infection model. Surprisingly, under spherule-inducing conditions, the C. posadasii S/E culture was found to be completely hyphal. Differential interference contrast (DIC) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed unexpected cellular changes in this strain including cell wall remodeling and formation of septal pores with Woronin bodies. Our study suggests that the C. posadasii S/E strain is a useful BSL-2 model for studying mechanisms underlying the parasitic to saprophytic growth transition—a morphological switch that can impact the pathogenicity of the organism in the host. MDPI 2022-04-28 /pmc/articles/PMC9145405/ /pubmed/35628711 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof8050455 Text en © 2022 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 | Article Garcia, Javier A. Vu, Kiem Thompson, George R. Gelli, Angie Characterization of the Growth and Morphology of a BSL-2 Coccidioides posadasii Strain That Persists in the Parasitic Life Cycle at Ambient CO(2) |
title | Characterization of the Growth and Morphology of a BSL-2 Coccidioides posadasii Strain That Persists in the Parasitic Life Cycle at Ambient CO(2) |
title_full | Characterization of the Growth and Morphology of a BSL-2 Coccidioides posadasii Strain That Persists in the Parasitic Life Cycle at Ambient CO(2) |
title_fullStr | Characterization of the Growth and Morphology of a BSL-2 Coccidioides posadasii Strain That Persists in the Parasitic Life Cycle at Ambient CO(2) |
title_full_unstemmed | Characterization of the Growth and Morphology of a BSL-2 Coccidioides posadasii Strain That Persists in the Parasitic Life Cycle at Ambient CO(2) |
title_short | Characterization of the Growth and Morphology of a BSL-2 Coccidioides posadasii Strain That Persists in the Parasitic Life Cycle at Ambient CO(2) |
title_sort | characterization of the growth and morphology of a bsl-2 coccidioides posadasii strain that persists in the parasitic life cycle at ambient co(2) |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9145405/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35628711 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jof8050455 |
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