Journal
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
Volume 8, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.02238
Keywords
Candida albicans; fungal pathogen; morphology; morphogenesis; nutritional immunity; micronutrients; zinc; adhesion
Categories
Funding
- Sir Henry Dale Fellowship - Wellcome Trust [102549/Z/13/Z]
- Sir Henry Dale Fellowship - Royal Society [102549/Z/13/Z]
- Wellcome Trust ISSF seed corn grant [RG12723 14]
- Medical Research Council
- University of Aberdeen [MR/N006364/1]
- Wellcome Trust Strategic Award for Medical Mycology and Fungal Immunology [097377/Z/11/Z]
- Wellcome Trust Investigator Award [101873]
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG [SFB/TR 124 FungiNet]
- Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship [DH150187]
- Public Authority of Applied Education and Training, Kuwait
- Wellcome Trust [102549/Z/13/Z] Funding Source: Wellcome Trust
- MRC [MR/N006364/1] Funding Source: UKRI
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Pathogenic microorganisms often face acute micronutrient limitation during infection due to the action of host-mediated nutritional immunity. The human fungal pathogen Candida albicans is polymorphic and its morphological plasticity is one of its most widely recognized pathogenicity attributes. Here we investigated the effect of zinc, iron, manganese, and copper limitation on C. albicans morphology. Restriction of zinc specifically resulted in the formation of enlarged, spherical yeasts, a phenotype which we term Goliath cells. This cellular response to zinc restriction was conserved in C. albicans, C. dubliniensis and C. tropicalis, but not in C. parapsilosis, C. lusitaniae or Debaryomyces hansenii, suggesting that it may have emerged in the last common ancestor of these related pathogenic species. Cell wall analysis revealed proportionally more chitin exposure on the Goliath cell surface. Importantly, these cells were hyperadherent, suggesting a possible role in pathogenicity. Interestingly, the zincophoreencoding gene PRA1 was expressed by Goliath cells in zinc limited media and lack of Pra1 inhibited both cellular enlargement and adhesion. Goliath cells represent a further layer of Candida phenotypic plasticity.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available