Journal article
Cell wall integrity is linked to mitochondria and phospholipid homeostasis in Candida albicans through the activity of the post-transcriptional regulator Ccr4-Pop2
MJ Dagley, IE Gentle, TH Beilharz, FA Pettolino, JT Djordjevic, TL Lo, N Uwamahoro, T Rupasinghe, DL Tull, M McConville, C Beaurepaire, A Nantel, T Lithgow, AP Mitchell, A Traven
Molecular Microbiology | Published : 2011
Abstract
The cell wall is essential for viability of fungi and is an effective drug target in pathogens such as Candida albicans. The contribution of post-transcriptional gene regulators to cell wall integrity in C. albicans is unknown. We show that the C. albicans Ccr4-Pop2 mRNA deadenylase, a regulator of mRNA stability and translation, is required for cell wall integrity. The ccr4/pop2 mutants display reduced wall β-glucans and sensitivity to the echinocandin caspofungin. Moreover, the deadenylase mutants are compromised for filamentation and virulence. We demonstrate that defective cell walls in the ccr4/pop2 mutants are linked to dysfunctional mitochondria and phospholipid imbalance. To further ..
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Funding Acknowledgements
This work was supported by a Peter Doherty fellowship from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC), a short-term postdoctoral fellowship from the Human Frontier Science Program Organization (HFSPO) and a discovery project grant from the Australian Research Council (ARC) (to A.T.), an ARC Federation fellowship (to T.L.), an ARC Australian Research fellowship (to T.H.B.) and an NH&MRC Principal Research Fellowship (to M.M.).