Department of Molecular Microbiology, Washington University Medical School, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
Curr Opin Struct Biol. 2011 Oct;21(5):597-602. doi: 10.1016/j.sbi.2011.08.006. Epub 2011 Sep 1.
Cryptococcus neoformans, a basidiomycete yeast and opportunistic pathogen, expends significant biosynthetic effort on construction of a polysaccharide capsule with a radius that may be many times that of the cell. Beyond posing a stimulating challenge in terms of defining biosynthetic pathways, the capsule is required for this yeast to cause fatal disease. This combination has focused the attention of researchers on this system. Here we briefly review two aspects of the rapidly advancing field of capsule synthesis: the extensive variation that occurs in capsule polymers and the regulation of capsule biosynthesis.
新生隐球菌是一种担子菌酵母和机会性病原体，它在构建多糖荚膜上投入了大量的生物合成努力，荚膜的半径可能是细胞的许多倍。除了在定义生物合成途径方面提出了一个具有挑战性的问题外，这种荚膜也是这种酵母引起致命疾病所必需的。这种组合使研究人员将注意力集中在这个系统上。在这里，我们简要回顾了荚膜合成这一快速发展领域的两个方面：荚膜聚合物中发生的广泛变异和荚膜生物合成的调控。
