Woods Jon P
Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1532, USA.
Fungal Genet Biol. 2002 Mar;35(2):81-97. doi: 10.1006/fgbi.2001.1311.
Histoplasma capsulatum is a thermally dimorphic ascomycete that is a significant cause of respiratory and systemic disease in mammals including humans, especially immunocompromised individuals such as AIDS patients. As an environmental mold found in the soil, it is a successful member of a competitive polymicrobial ecosystem. Its host-adapted yeast form is a facultative intracellular pathogen of mammalian macrophages. H. capsulatum faces a variety of environmental changes during the course of infection and must survive under harsh conditions or modulate its microenvironment to achieve success as a pathogen. Histoplasmosis may be considered the fungal homolog of the bacterial infection tuberculosis, since both H. capsulatum and Mycobacterium tuberculosis exploit the macrophage as a host cell and can cause acute or persistent pulmonary and disseminated infection and reactivation disease. The identification and functional analysis of biologically or pathogenically important H. capsulatum genes have been greatly facilitated by the development of molecular genetic experimental capabilities in this organism. This review focuses on responsiveness of this fungus to its environment, including differential expression of genes and adaptive phenotypic traits.
荚膜组织胞浆菌是一种温度双态子囊菌，是包括人类在内的哺乳动物呼吸道和全身性疾病的重要病因，尤其是免疫功能低下的个体，如艾滋病患者。作为一种存在于土壤中的环境霉菌，它是竞争性多微生物生态系统中成功的一员。其适应宿主的酵母形式是哺乳动物巨噬细胞的兼性细胞内病原体。荚膜组织胞浆菌在感染过程中面临各种环境变化，必须在恶劣条件下存活或调节其微环境才能作为病原体取得成功。组织胞浆菌病可被认为是细菌感染结核病的真菌同源物，因为荚膜组织胞浆菌和结核分枝杆菌都利用巨噬细胞作为宿主细胞，并且都可引起急性或持续性肺部及播散性感染以及再激活疾病。该生物体分子遗传实验能力的发展极大地促进了对荚膜组织胞浆菌生物学或致病性重要基因的鉴定和功能分析。本综述重点关注这种真菌对其环境的反应，包括基因的差异表达和适应性表型特征。
