Crosstalk between the calcineurin and cell wall integrity pathways prevents chitin overexpression in Candida albicans.

ABSTRACT: Echinocandins such as caspofungin are frontline antifungal drugs that compromise β-1,3 glucan synthesis in the cell wall. Recent reports have shown that fungal cells can resist killing by caspofungin by upregulation of chitin synthesis, thereby sustaining cell wall integrity (CWI). When echinocandins are removed, the chitin content of cells quickly returns to basal levels, suggesting that there is a fitness cost associated with having elevated levels of chitin in the cell wall. We show here that simultaneous activation of the calcineurin and CWI pathways generates a subpopulation of Candida albicans yeast cells that have supra-normal chitin levels interspersed throughout the inner and outer cell wall, and that these cells are non-viable, perhaps due to loss of wall elasticity required for

SUBMITTER: da Silva Dantas A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8729787 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature