N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) triggers a rapid, temperature-responsive morphogenetic program in thermally dimorphic fungi.

ABSTRACT: The monosaccharide N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) is a major component of microbial cell walls and is ubiquitous in the environment. GlcNAc stimulates developmental pathways in the fungal pathogen Candida albicans, which is a commensal organism that colonizes the mammalian gut and causes disease in the setting of host immunodeficiency. Here we investigate GlcNAc signaling in thermally dimorphic human fungal pathogens, a group of fungi that are highly evolutionarily diverged from C. albicans and cause disease even in healthy individuals. These soil organisms grow as polarized, multicellular hyphal filaments that transition into a unicellular, pathogenic yeast form when inhaled by a human host. Temperature is the primary environmental cue that promotes reversible cellular differentiation into

SUBMITTER: Gilmore SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3778022 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature