Impact of genetic background on allele selection in a highly mutable Candida albicans gene, PNG2.

ABSTRACT: In many microbes rapid mutation of highly mutable contingency genes continually replenishes a pool of variant alleles from which the most suitable are selected, assisting in rapid adaptation and evasion of the immune response. In some contingency genes mutability is achieved through DNA repeats within the coding region. The fungal human pathogen Candida albicans has 2600 repeat-containing ORFs. For those investigated (ALS genes, HYR1, HYR2, CEK1, RLM1) many protein variants with differing amino acid repeat regions exist, as expected for contingency genes. However, specific alleles dominate in different clades, which is unexpected if allele variation is used for short-term adaptation. Generation of new alleles of repeat-containing C. albicans ORFs has never been observed directly. Here we p

SUBMITTER: Zhang N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2834760 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature