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Global transcriptomic analyses of the candida albicans response to treatment with a novel inhibitor of filamentation

ABSTRACT: The opportunistic pathogenic fungus Candida albicans can cause devastating infections in severely compromised patients. Its ability to undergo a morphogenetic transition from yeast to filamentous forms allows it to penetrate tissues and cause damage, and the expression of a number of pathogenetic mechanisms are also coordinately regulated with this yeast-to-hyphae conversion. Therefore, it is widely considered that filamentation represents one of the main virulence factors of C. albicans. We have previously identified N-[3-(allyloxy)-phenyl]-4-methoxybenzamide (compound 9029936) as the lead compound in a series of small molecule inhibitors of C. albicans filamentation, and characterized its activity, both in vitro and in vivo, as a promising candidate for the development of alternative anti-virulence strategies for the treatment of C. albicans infections. Here we have performed RNA sequencing analysis of samples obtained from C. albicans cells grown under filament-inducing conditions in the presence or absence of this compound. Overall treatment with compound 9029936 resulted in 618 up-regulated and 702 down-regulated genes. Not surprisingly some of the top down-regulated genes included well characterized genes associated with filamentation and virulence such as SAP5, ECE1 (candidalysin), and ALS3, as well as genes that impact metal chelation and utilization. Gene ontology analysis revealed an over-representation of cell adhesion, iron transport, filamentation, biofilm formation, and pathogenesis processes among down-regulated genes as result of treatment with this leading compound. Interestingly, the top up-regulated genes pointed to an enhancement of vesicular transport pathways, and in particular SNARE interactions.

ORGANISM(S): Candida albicans

PROVIDER: GSE136116 | GEO | 2019/08/22

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Transcriptional profiling of CDC53 down-regulated Candida albicans cells compared to control cells Keywords: comparative genomic hybridization, genetic modification Candida albicans is an important opportunistic human fungal pathogen, which can cause mucosal as well as systemic infections in immunocompromised patients. Critical for the virulence of C. albicans is its ability to undergo a morphological transition from yeast to hyphal growth mode. Proper induction of filamentation is dependent on the ubiquitination pathway, which targets proteins for proteasome-mediated protein degradation or activates them for signaling events. In the present study, we evaluated the role of ubiquitination in C. albicans by impairing the function of the major ubiquitin-ligase complex SCF. This was done by depleting its backbone, the cullin Cdc53p (orf19.1674), using a tetracycline down-regulatable promoter system. Cdc53p-depleted cells displayed an invasive phenotype and constitutive filamentation under conditions favouring yeast growth mode, both on solid and in liquid media. In addition, these cells exhibited an early onset of cell death, as judged from propidium iodide staining, suggesting that CDC53 is an essential gene in C. albicans. To identify Cdc53p-dependent pathways in C. albicans, a genome-wide expression analysis was carried out that revealed a total of 425 differentially expressed genes (fold change â¥ 2, p-value â¤ 0.05) with 192 up- and 233 down-regulated genes in the CDC53-repressed mutant as compared to the control strain. GO term analysis identified biological processes significantly affected by Cdc53p depletion, including amino acid starvation response, with 14 genes being targets of the transcriptional regulator Gcn4p, and reductive iron transport. These results indicate that Cdc53p enables C. albicans to adequately respond to environmental signals. Two-strain experiment, CDC53-repressible cells vs. control cells, both grown in the presence of 20 Âµg/ml Doxycycline. Four independent biological replicates of total RNA of each strain, dye-swap.

Project description:Recent studies have shown that the transcriptional landscape of the pleiomorphic fungus Candida albicans is highly dependent upon growth conditions. Here using a dual RNA-seq approach we identified 299 C. albicans and 72 Streptococcus gordonii genes that were either up- or down-regulated specifically as a result of co-culturing these human oral cavity microorganisms. Seventy five C. albicans genes involved in responses to chemical stimuli, regulation, homeostasis, protein modification and cell cycle were statistically (P ≤0.05) upregulated, while 36 genes mainly involved in transport and translation were down-regulated. Upregulation of filamentation-associated TEC1 and FGR42 genes, and of ALS1 adhesin gene, concurred with previous evidence that the C. albicans yeast to hypha transition is promoted by S. gordonii. Increased expression of genes required for arginine biosynthesis in C. albicans was potentially indicative of a novel oxidative stress response. The transcriptional response of S. gordonii to C. albicans was less dramatic, with only eight S. gordonii genes significantly (P ≤0.05) up-regulated ≥ twofold (glpK, rplO, celB, rplN, rplB, rpsE, ciaR, and gat). The expression patterns suggest that signals from S. gordonii cause a positive filamentation response in C. albicans, while S. gordonii appears to be transcriptionally less influenced by C. albicans. Five Samples; Sample 1 - Candida albicans cells grown in hypha inducing conditions for two hours; Sample 2 - Candida albicans cells grown in hypha-inducing conditions for two hours before co-culture with Streptococcus gordonii cells for one hour in a 2:1 rato; Sample 3 - Candida albicans cells grown in hypha-inducing conditions for two hours before culture in Streptococcus gordonii media for one hour; Sample 4 - Candida albicans cells grown in hypha inducing conditions for two hours, filtered to remove Candida albicans cells and media added to Streptococcus gordonii cells for one hour; Sample 5 - Streptococcus gordonii cells alone for one hour. All samples extracted and sequenced in biological triplicate using Illumina HiSeq2500. Samples 1, 2 and 3 aligned to the reference genome for Candida albicans and Samples 2, 4 and 5 aligned to the reference genome for Streptococcus gordonii.

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Global transcriptomic analyses of the candida albicans response to treatment with a novel inhibitor of filamentation

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