Affiliation:
1. Departamento de Microbiologı́a II, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, E-28040 Madrid, Spain
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The relevance of the mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase Hog1p in
Candida albicans
was addressed through the characterization of
C. albicans
strains without a functional
HOG1
gene. Analysis of the phenotype of
hog1
mutants under osmostressing conditions revealed that this mutant displays a set of morphological alterations as the result of a failure to complete the final stages of cytokinesis, with parallel defects in the budding pattern. Even under permissive conditions,
hog1
mutants displayed a different susceptibility to some compounds such as nikkomycin Z or Congo red, which interfere with cell wall functionality. In addition, the
hog1
mutant displayed a colony morphology different from that of the wild-type strain on some media which promote morphological transitions in
C. albicans
. We show that
C. albicans hog1
mutants are derepressed in the serum-induced hyphal formation and, consistently with this behavior, that
HOG1
overexpression in
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
represses the pseudodimorphic transition. Most interestingly, deletion of
HOG1
resulted in a drastic increase in the mean survival time of systemically infected mice, supporting a role for this MAP kinase pathway in virulence of pathogenic fungi. This finding has potential implications in antifungal therapy.
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Subject
Molecular Biology,Microbiology
Cited by
301 articles.
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