Dataset Information

Cryptococcal infectome uncovers new therapeutic targets

ABSTRACT: Mortality and morbidity rates of invasive fungal infections are rising as new pathogens emerge, antifungal resistance rates rise, and susceptible populations increase in numbers. Innovative strategies to identify and characterize novel druggable targets and investigate mechanisms of action driving fungal virulence and survival are urgently needed. For Cryptococcus neoformans, a human fungal pathogen with global distribution and elevated infectivity rates, especially among immunocompromised individuals, elucidation of mechanistic drivers of infection are limited. In this study, we developed an innovative pipeline to explore fluctuations in the fungal infectome combined with phenome fingerprinting to define three categories of putative fungal therapeutic candidates: antifungal, anti-virulence, and infection-relevant. Prioritization of an uncharacterized, conserved, and virulence-associated protein, CipC, explored distinct signatures of extracellular vesicles and pointed towards enhanced antigenic properties. A murine immunization trial revealed limited heightened protection with EVs from a deletion strain of cipC; however, an increased and diversified host immune response was observed, supporting a putative role in pan-fungal immunization. We report a comprehensive pipeline to define and explore novel drivers of fungal infectivity for the identification of new therapeutic targets to improve current treatment and protections strategies against fungal pathogens.

INSTRUMENT(S):

ORGANISM(S): Cryptococcus Neoformans Var. Grubii Serotype A (strain H99 / Atcc 208821 / Cbs 10515 / Fgsc 9487) (filobasidiella Neoformans Var. Grubii) Mus Musculus (mouse)

TISSUE(S): Cell Culture, Extracellular Membrane-bounded Organelle, Defense Response To Fungus, Macrophage

DISEASE(S): Cryptococcosis

SUBMITTER: Jennifer Geddes-McAlister

LAB HEAD: Jennifer Geddes-McAlister

PROVIDER: PXD051506 | Pride | 2026-05-20

REPOSITORIES: Pride

ACCESS DATA

Dataset's files

Source:

Items per page:

1 - 5 of 18

Similar Datasets

Project description:A family of APSES transcription factor is known to be fungal-specific transcriptional regulators and play important roles in governing growth, differentiation, and virulence of diverse fungal pathogens. Yet none of APSES-like transcription factors have been identified and investigated in a basidiomycetous fungal pathogen, Cryptococcus neoformans. In the present study we discovered an APSES-like transcription factor, mbs1 (Mbp1/Swi4-like APSES protein 1), as one of novel flucytosine-responsive genes (total 194 genes) identified through comparative transcriptome analysis of C. neoformans hybrid sensor kinase mutants, tco1 and tco2 mutants, which displayed differential flucytosine-susceptibility. Supporting the microarray data, Northern blot and quantitative RT-PCR analysis confirmed that expression of mbs1 is rapidly induced in response to flucytosine in the wild-type strain, but not in the tco1 and tco2 mutants. Furthermore, C. neoformans with deletion of the mbs1 gene exhibited increased susceptibility to flucytosine. Intriguingly, mbs1 plays pleiotropic roles in diverse cellular process of C. neoformans. mbs1 positively regulates ergosterol biosynthesis and thereby its inhibition confers increased susceptibility and resistance to amphotericin B and azole drugs, respectively. mbs1 is also involved in DNA damage repair counteracting genotoxic stresses. During sexual differentiation mbs1 represses pheromone production, but promotes cell-cell fusion. Furthermore mbs1 is required for production of antioxidant melanin pigment and full virulence of C. neoformans. Finally we also performed DNA microarrray analysis to identify mbs1-regulated genes in C. neoformans. A majority of them were found to be involved in cell cycle regulation and DNA repair. Therefore, this study provides a novel antifungal therapeutic method for treatment of cryptococcosis. total RNAs are extracted 2 strains from H99 (H99 Wild type strain (Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii serotype A), mbs1Δ), We use the mixed all of total RNAs from this experiment as a control RNA. We use Cy5 as Sample dye and Cy3 as a control dye.

Project description:WD40 motif-containing Msi1-like (MSIL) proteins play pleiotropic cellular functions as a negative regulator of the Ras/cAMP-pathways and a component of chromatin assembly factor-I (CAF-I), and yet have not been studied in fungal pathogens. Here we identified and characterized an MSIL protein, Msl1, in Cryptococcus neoformans, which can cause fatal meningoencephalitis in humans. Notably, Msl1 was not a functional ortholog for the yeast Msi1 but played pleiotropic roles in C. neoformans in both cAMP-dependent and -independent manners but mainly Ras-independently. Msl1 negatively controlled antioxidant melanin production and sexual differentiation, which can be repressed by inhibiting the cAMP-signaling pathways. In contrast, Msl1 controlled thermotolerance, diverse stress responses, and antifungal drugs resistance in Ras/cAMP-independent manners. Cac2, which is the second CAF-I component, appeared to play both redundant and distinct function with Msl1. Msl1 is required for full virulence of C. neoformans. Transcriptome and proteomic analysis identified a group of Msl1-regulated genes or -interacting proteins, respectively, which mostly include stress-related genes, including HSP12, HSP78, SSA1, SSA4, and STM1. Furthermore, we identified the third putative component of CAF-1, Rlf2, in C. neoformans. In conclusion, this study demonstrated the pleiotropic roles of Msl1 in human fungal pathogen C. neoformans, providing a novel antifungal therapeutic target. There is more than 95% genome homology between JEC21 and H99. Therefore, 6 slides of JEC21 (Cryptococcus neoformans var. neoformans serotype D) 70-mer oligos are used in this analysis. Total RNAs are extracted from 2 strains from H99 (H99 wild-type strain (Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii serotype A), msl1M-NM-^T). 3 biological replicate experiments are performed for each strain. We use the mix of all total RNAs from this experiment as the control RNA. We use Cy3 as the test sample dye and Cy5 as the control dye.

Project description:A family of APSES transcription factor is known to be fungal-specific transcriptional regulators and play important roles in governing growth, differentiation, and virulence of diverse fungal pathogens. Yet none of APSES-like transcription factors have been identified and investigated in a basidiomycetous fungal pathogen, Cryptococcus neoformans. In the present study we discovered an APSES-like transcription factor, Msa1 (Mbp1/Swi4-like APSES protein 1), as one of novel flucytosine-responsive genes (total 194 genes) identified through comparative transcriptome analysis of C. neoformans hybrid sensor kinase mutants, tco1 and tco2 mutants, which displayed differential flucytosine-susceptibility. Supporting the microarray data, Northern blot and quantitative RT-PCR analysis confirmed that expression of MSA1 is rapidly induced in response to flucytosine in the wild-type strain, but not in the tco1 and tco2 mutants. Furthermore, C. neoformans with deletion of the MSA1 gene exhibited increased susceptibility to flucytosine. Intriguingly, Msa1 plays pleiotropic roles in diverse cellular process of C. neoformans. Msa1 positively regulates ergosterol biosynthesis and thereby its inhibition confers increased susceptibility and resistance to amphotericin B and azole drugs, respectively. Msa1 is also involved in DNA damage repair counteracting genotoxic stresses. During sexual differentiation Msa1 represses pheromone production, but promotes cell-cell fusion. Furthermore Msa1 is required for production of antioxidant melanin pigment and full virulence of C. neoformans. Finally we also performed DNA microarrray analysis to identify Msa1-regulated genes in C. neoformans. A majority of them were found to be involved in cell cycle regulation and DNA repair. Therefore, this study provides a novel antifungal therapeutic method for treatment of cryptococcosis. There are more than 95% of genome homology between JEC21 and H99. Therefore 24 slides of JEC21 (cryptococcus neoformans var. neoformans serotype D) 70-mer oligo are used in this analysis, 3 biological replicate experiments are performed, total RNAs are extracted under 2 conditions (with or without treatment of Flucytosine) with 4 strains from H99 (H99 Wild type strain (Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii serotype A), tco1Δ , tco2Δ , skn7Δ), We use the mixed all of total RNAs from this experiment as a control RNA. We use Cy5 as Sample dye and Cy3 as a control dye.

			Action	DRS
	Dec2422-BB-3007x1F-1.raw	Raw
	Dec2422-BB-3007x1F-2.raw	Raw
	Dec2422-BB-3007x1F-3.raw	Raw
	Dec2422-BB-3007x1F-4.raw	Raw
	Dec2422-BB-WT1.raw	Raw

Dataset Information

Cryptococcal infectome uncovers new therapeutic targets

Dataset's files

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets