State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Fungal Genet Biol. 2014 Jan;62:71-7. doi: 10.1016/j.fgb.2013.10.005. Epub 2013 Oct 22.
Candida albicans, a major opportunistic fungal pathogen of humans, can spontaneously undergo white-to-opaque switching, a prerequisite of mating. The phenotypes of white and opaque cells are heritable and bistable. The zinc-finger transcription factor Wor2 (White Opaque Regulator 2) has previously been identified as an important regulator of white-to-opaque switching. Deletion of WOR2 locks cells in the white phase when cultured on media containing glucose as the sole carbon source. In this study, we report that N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) can induce white-to-opaque switching in the wor2/wor2 null mutant and stabilize the opaque phenotype of C. albicans. Moreover, overexpression of RAS1V13 (the activating form of RAS1) hypersensitizes white cells of the wor2/wor2 mutant to GlcNAc. These results suggest that Wor2 is not required for opaque cell formation at least under some culture conditions. Therefore C. albicans cells may adopt a different gene expression profile in response to GlcNAc to activate phenotypic switching.
白色念珠菌是一种重要的人类机会致病真菌病原体，能够自发地进行由白变灰的转换，这是交配的先决条件。白和不透明细胞的表型是可遗传的和双稳态的。锌指转录因子 Wor2（白色不透明调节剂 2）先前被鉴定为白变灰转换的重要调节剂。当在含有葡萄糖作为唯一碳源的培养基中培养时，WOR2 的缺失将细胞锁定在白色阶段。在这项研究中，我们报告 N-乙酰葡萄糖胺（GlcNAc）可以诱导 wor2/wor2 缺失突变体中的白变灰转换，并稳定白色念珠菌的不透明表型。此外，RAS1V13（RAS1 的激活形式）的过表达使 wor2/wor2 突变体的白色细胞对 GlcNAc 敏感。这些结果表明，在至少一些培养条件下，Wor2 不是形成不透明细胞所必需的。因此，白色念珠菌细胞可能会对 GlcNAc 产生不同的基因表达谱，以激活表型转换。
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