The Candida albicans HIR histone chaperone regulates the yeast-to-hyphae transition by controlling the sensitivity to morphogenesis signals.

ABSTRACT: Morphological plasticity such as the yeast-to-hyphae transition is a key virulence factor of the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans. Hyphal formation is controlled by a multilayer regulatory network composed of environmental sensing, signaling, transcriptional modulators as well as chromatin modifications. Here, we demonstrate a novel role for the replication-independent HIR histone chaperone complex in fungal morphogenesis. HIR operates as a crucial modulator of hyphal development, since genetic ablation of the HIR complex subunit Hir1 decreases sensitivity to morphogenetic stimuli. Strikingly, HIR1-deficient cells display altered transcriptional amplitudes upon hyphal initiation, suggesting that Hir1 affects transcription by establishing transcriptional thresholds required for drivin

SUBMITTER: Jenull S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5559454 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature