Leveraging a new data resource to define the response of C. neoformans to environmental signals: How host-like signals drive gene expression and capsule expansion in Cryptococcus neoformans.

ABSTRACT: Cryptococcus neoformans is an opportunistic fungal pathogen with a polysaccharide capsule that becomes greatly enlarged in the mammalian host and during in vitro growth under host-like conditions. To understand how individual environmental signals affect capsule size and gene expression, we grew cells in all combinations of five signals implicated in capsule size and systematically measured cell and capsule sizes. We also sampled these cultures over time and performed RNA-Seq in quadruplicate, yielding 881 RNA-Seq samples. Analysis of the resulting data sets showed that capsule induction in tissue culture medium, typically used to represent host-like conditions, requires the presence of either CO₂ or exogenous cyclic AMP (cAMP). Surprisingly, adding either of these

SUBMITTER: Kang YS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10153387 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature