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N-acetylglucosamine kinase, HXK1 contributes to White-Opaque morphological transition in Candida albicans

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Title N-acetylglucosamine kinase, HXK1 contributes to White-Opaque morphological transition in Candida albicans
 
Creator Rao, Kongara Hanumantha
Ruhela, Deepa
Ghosh, Swagata
Abdin, M.Z.
Datta, Asis
 
Subject Candida albicans
N-acetylglucosamine
Hxk1
White–opaque switching
Wor1
Ras1
 
Description Morphological transition (yeast-hyphal and white-opaque) is an important biological process in the life cycle of pathogenic yeast, Candida albicans and is a major determinant of virulence. Earlier reports show that the amino sugar, N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) induces white to opaque switching in this pathogen. We report here a new contributor to this switching phenomenon, namely N-acetylglucosamine kinase or HXK1, the first enzyme of the GlcNAc catabolic cascade. Microarray profile analysis of wild type vs. hxk1 mutant cells grown under switching inducing condition showed upregulation of opaque specific and cell wall specific genes along genes involved in the oxidative metabolism. Further, our qRT-PCR and immunoblot analysis revealed that the expression levels of Wor1, a master regulator of the white-opaque switching phenomenon remained unaltered during this HXK1 mediated transition. Thus the derepression of opaque specific gene expression observed in hxk1 mutant could be uncoupled to the expression of WOR1. Moreover, this regulation via HXK1 is independent of Ras1, a major regulator of morphogenetic transition and probably independent of MTL locus too. These results extend our understanding of multifarious roles of metabolic enzymes like Hxk1 and suggest an adaptive mechanism during host-pathogen interactions.
The authors thank Drs. Judith Berman, Maryam Gerami-Nejad,
Aaron P. Michell, Guanghua Huang and David Soll for generously
providing the plasmids and C. albicans strains used in this study
and providing experimental suggestions. K.H.R. and S.G. are recipients of CSIR-SRA fellowship. D.R. is a recipient of ICMR-SRF.
 
Date 2015-12-22T11:07:13Z
2015-12-22T11:07:13Z
2014
 
Type Article
 
Identifier Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm., 445(1): 138-144
0006-291X
http://172.16.0.77:8080/jspui/handle/123456789/445
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006291X14001582
10.1016/j.bbrc.2014.01.123
 
Language en_US
 
Publisher Elsevier B.V.