Transcriptional profiles of response to terbinafine in Trichophyton rubrum.

Trichophyton rubrum is a good model for the study of human pathogenic filamentous fungi. The antifungal agent terbinafine (TRB) shows specific activity against T. rubrum. To identify the transcriptional profiles of response to TRB in T. rubrum, a cDNA microarray was constructed from the expressed sequence tags of different phase cDNA libraries and transcriptional profiles of the response to TRB were determined. Exposure to TRB decreased the transcription of some genes involved in the ergosterol biosynthesis pathway, including ERG2, ERG4, ERG24, and ERG25, and induced the expression of some genes involved in lipid metabolism such as ERG10, ERG13, and INO1. TRB affected transcription of multidrug-resistance genes and some genes encoding ribosomal proteins.