Project description:Sexual reproduction facilitates infection by the production of both a lineage advantage and infectious sexual spores in the ubiquitous human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus deneoformans. However, the regulatory determinants specific for initiating mating remain poorly understood. Here, we identified a velvet family regulator, Cva1, that strongly promotes sexual reproduction in C. deneoformans. This regulation was determined to be specific, based on a comprehensive phenotypic analysis of cva1 under 25 distinct in vitro and in vivo growth conditions. We further revealed that Cva1 plays a critical role in the initiation of early mating events, especially sexual cell-cell fusion, but is not important for the late sexual development stages or meiosis. Thus, Cva1 specifically contributes to mating activation. Importantly, a novel mating-responsive surface protein, Cfs1, serves as the key target of Cva1 during mating, since its absence nearly blocks cell-cell fusion in C. deneoformans and its sister species C. neoformans. Together, our findings provide insight into how C. deneoformans ensures regulatory specificity of mating.
Project description:To identify the genome-wide transcriptional changes that occur throughout sexual developmen of C. neoformans, we conducted a time-course microarray experiment spanning six developmental stages to generate a temporal expression pattern for each known gene. C. neoformans a x α co-cultures were grown under sexual development conditions (V8 agar), and RNA was harvested at 0.5, 6, 12, 24, 48, and 72 hours post-mixing. Time points were chosen based on microscopic identification of cell types of interest: fusants, filaments (early and late), basidia, and spores (Figure 1B). Microarray hybridizations were conducted in a loop design, with each sample serving as a reference for the following time point in the experiment (e.g. 0.5 hours vs. 6 hours, 6 hours vs. 12 hours, etc).
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:Cell-cycle transcript dynamics from two species of wild-type budding yeast growing at 30 degrees Celsius in rich media: Saccharomyces cerevisiae (BF264-15D background) and Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii (H99F background). We compared programs of cell-cycle-regulated genes between distantly related budding yeasts.
Project description:Transcriptome profiling of wild type and cfo1 mutant with fluconazole treatment in Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii H99 Purpose: The goals of this study are to compare cfo1 mutant transcriptome profiling (RNA-seq) to wild-type with or without fluconazole treatment in Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii H99. Methods: mRNA profiles of wild-type and cfo1 mutant with or without fluconazole treatment were generated by RNA-Seq, using Illumina GAIIx. The sequence reads that passed quality filters were mapped to reference genome and the normalized RPKM values were calculated by CLC Genomics Workbench. Results: Compared to wild-type, a number of genes were differentially expressed in the cfo1 mutant, especially genes involved in iron homeostasis and transport, ergosterol biosynthesis, mitochondrial function and respiration. Conclusions: Our data suggested reduced expression of the genes in the respiratory chain is the main reason for altered antifungal sensitivity of the cfo1 mutant. The results of our study revealed that iron uptake plays a key role in fluconazole sensitivity of C. neoformans.