Phenotypic analysis of genes whose mRNA accumulation is dependent on calcineurin in Aspergillus fumigatus.
Fungal Genet Biol
; 46(10): 791-802, 2009 Oct.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-19573616
ABSTRACT
Calcineurin plays an important role in the control of cell morphology and virulence in fungi. Calcineurin is a serine/threonine-specific protein phosphatase heterodimer consisting of a catalytic subunit A and a regulatory subunit B. A mutant of Aspergillus fumigatus lacking the calcineurin A (calA) catalytic subunit exhibited defective hyphal morphology related to apical extension and branching growth, which resulted in drastically decreased filamentation. Here, we investigated which pathways are influenced by A. fumigatus calcineurin during proliferation by comparatively determining the transcriptional profile of A. fumigatus wild type and DeltacalA mutant strains. Our results showed that the mitochondrial copy number is reduced in the DeltacalA mutant strain, and the mutant has increased alternative oxidase (aoxA) mRNA accumulation and activity. Furthermore, we identified four genes that encode transcription factors that have increased mRNA expression in the DeltacalA mutant. Deletion mutants for these transcription factors had reduced susceptibility to itraconazole, caspofungin, and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS).
Full text:
1
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Aspergillus fumigatus
/
RNA, Messenger
/
Fungal Proteins
/
Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal
/
Calcineurin
/
Genes, Fungal
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
Language:
En
Journal:
Fungal Genet Biol
Journal subject:
GENETICA
/
MICROBIOLOGIA
Year:
2009
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Brazil