Heterotrimeric G-alpha subunits Gpa11 and Gpa12 define a transduction pathway that control spore size and virulence in Mucor circinelloides.

ABSTRACT: Mucor circinelloides is one of the causal agents of mucormycosis, an emerging and high mortality rate fungal infection produced by asexual spores (sporangiospores) of fungi that belong to the order Mucorales. M. circinelloides has served as a model genetic system to understand the virulence mechanism of this infection. Although the G-protein signaling cascade plays crucial roles in virulence in many pathogenic fungi, its roles in Mucorales are yet to be elucidated. Previous study found that sporangiospore size and calcineurin are related to the virulence in Mucor, in which larger spores are more virulent in an animal mucormycosis model and loss of a calcineurin A catalytic subunit CnaA results in larger spore production and virulent phenotype. The M. circinelloides genome is known to harbo

SUBMITTER: Patino-Medina JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6936849 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature