The RAM signaling pathway links morphology, thermotolerance, and CO₂ tolerance in the global fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans.

ABSTRACT: The environmental pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans claims over 180,000 lives each year. Survival of this basidiomycete at host CO₂ concentrations has only recently been considered an important virulence trait. Through screening gene knockout libraries constructed in a CO₂-tolerant clinical strain, we found mutations leading to CO₂ sensitivity are enriched in pathways activated by heat stress, including calcineurin, Ras1-Cdc24, cell wall integrity, and Regulator of Ace2 and Morphogenesis (RAM). Overexpression of Cbk1, the conserved terminal kinase of the RAM pathway, partially restored defects of these mutants at host CO₂ or temperature levels. In ascomycetes such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida albica

SUBMITTER: Chadwick BJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9708076 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature