Cwh8 moonlights as a farnesyl pyrophosphate phosphatase and is essential for farnesol biosynthesis in <i>Candida albicans</i>.

ABSTRACT: In the opportunistic pathogen Candida albicans, hyphal growth and virulence factor expression are regulated by environmental and chemical cues. Farnesol is a secreted autoregulatory molecule that represses filamentation. It is derived from farnesyl pyrophosphate (FPP), an ergosterol biosynthesis pathway intermediate. Although Dpp1, Dpp2, and Dpp3 were proposed to synthesize farnesol, a mutant lacking all three had only a modest reduction in farnesol. To identify other farnesol biosynthesis genes, we employed transcription factor mutants that underproduced or overproduced farnesol in a screen and analyzed their transcriptomes. CWH8 was the only transcript correlated with farnesol production. Cwh8 is a lipid phosphatase known to recycle dolichyl pyrophosphate during glycosylati

SUBMITTER: Gutzmann DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12505894 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature