Activation of Melanin Synthesis in Alternaria infectoria by Antifungal Drugs.

ABSTRACT: The importance of Alternaria species fungi to human health ranges from their role as etiological agents of serious infections with poor prognoses in immunosuppressed individuals to their association with respiratory allergic diseases. The present work focuses on Alternaria infectoria, which was used as a model organism of the genus, and was designed to unravel melanin production in response to antifungals. After we characterized the pigment produced by A. infectoria, we studied the dynamics of 1,8-dihydroxynaphthalene (DHN)-melanin production during growth, the degree of melanization in response to antifungals, and how melanization affected susceptibility to several classes of therapeutic drugs. We demonstrate that A. infectoria increased melanin deposition in cell walls in response to nik

SUBMITTER: Fernandes C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4775914 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature