In:
Infection and Immunity, American Society for Microbiology, Vol. 66, No. 6 ( 1998-06), p. 2713-2721
Abstract:
Extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK, or mitogen-activated protein kinase [MAPK]) regulatory cascades in fungi turn on transcription factors that control developmental processes, stress responses, and cell wall integrity. CEK1 encodes a Candida albicans MAPK homolog (Cek1p), isolated by its ability to interfere with the Saccharomyces cerevisiae MAPK mating pathway. C. albicans cells with a deletion of the CEK1 gene are defective in shifting from a unicellular budding colonial growth mode to an agar-invasive hyphal growth mode when nutrients become limiting on solid medium with mannitol as a carbon source or on glucose when nitrogen is severely limited. The same phenotype is seen in C. albicans mutants in which the homologs ( CST20 , HST7 , and CPH1 ) of the S. cerevisiae STE20 , STE7 , and STE12 genes are disrupted. In S. cerevisiae , the products of these genes function as part of a MAPK cascade required for mating and invasiveness of haploid cells and for pseudohyphal development of diploid cells. Epistasis studies revealed that the C. albicans CST20 , HST7 , CEK1 , and CPH1 gene products lie in an equivalent, canonical, MAPK cascade. While Cek1p acts as part of the MAPK cascade involved in starvation-specific hyphal development, it may also play independent roles in C. albicans . In contrast to disruptions of the HST7 and CPH1 genes, disruption of the CEK1 gene adversely affects the growth of serum-induced mycelial colonies and attenuates virulence in a mouse model for systemic candidiasis.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0019-9567
,
1098-5522
DOI:
10.1128/IAI.66.6.2713-2721.1998
Language:
English
Publisher:
American Society for Microbiology
Publication Date:
1998
detail.hit.zdb_id:
1483247-1
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