ABSTRACT: The conserved cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) holoenzyme is composed of two catalytic and two regulatory subunits. It plays critical roles in the regulation of many biological processes in eukaryotic organisms. In the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans, the PKA kinase has been extensively investigated for its importance in the regulation of morphological transitions and virulence. It has been long thought that the PKA catalytic subunit is essential for cell viability in C. albicans. Paradoxically, the single adenylyl cyclase-encoding gene, CRY1, which is required for the production of cAMP in C. albicans, is not essential for cell growth. In this study, we successfully generated a null double mutant of TPK1 and TPK2 (tpk2/tpk2 tpk1/tpk1 or t2t1), which encode two isoforms of the PKA catalytic subunit in C. albicans. We reevaluated the roles of the PKA catalytic subunit in cell growth and phenotypic transitions. Inactivation of the PKA catalytic subunit by deletion of both TPK1 and TPK2 blocked filamentation and dramatically attenuated the ability of white-to-opaque switching, but promoted sexual mating in C. albicans. Tpk2 plays a major role in these regulations, while Tpk1 generally functions as a negative regulator in morphological transitions and sexual mating. A comparative transcriptomic analysis demonstrated that the t2t1 and cyr1/cyr1 mutants exhibited similar global gene expression profiles. Compared to the WT strain, the general transcriptional activity and expression of genes involved in metabolism, translation, biosynthesis, adhesion and filamentation are significantly decreased in both the t2t1 and cyr1/cyr1 mutants. And a portion of stress-response and cell wall-related genes were upregulated in these mutants, which is consistent with their increased ability of anti-stresses. To further explore the global regulatory role of the PKA kinase, we performed quantitative phosphoproteomics analysis. Combining with bioinformatics analyses, we identified 181 potential PKA phosphorylation targets, which represent 148 unique proteins involved in a wide spectrum of biological processes. Cell wall and membrane-related proteins (e.g. Ecm3, Bni1, and Smi1) were enriched in Tpk1-specific targets, while Tpk2-specific substrates include transporters, filamentation and cytoskeleton-related proteins (e.g. Smf3, Sep7, and Mhp1). There were also many Tpk1 and Tpk2 overlapped and coordinately regulated-substrates. Our study clarifies the essentiality of the PKA catalytic subunit and shed new insights into the global regulatory features of the cAMP/PKA pathway in C. ablicans. The t2t1 null mutant generated in this study would also be a new resource for the field to study this important pathway.
