The College of Veterinary Medicine, Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, Yangling, China.
The Animal Health Supervision Institute of Xi'an, Xi'an, China.
Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2021 Sep 16;11:727665. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2021.727665. eCollection 2021.
, a common pathogenic skin fungus, can cause dermatophytosis in humans and animals. Zinc is an important trace element and plays an important role in the growth and metabolism of fungi. Currently, the effects of zinc deficiency on growth, gene expression, and metabolic pathway have not been clarified in . Therefore, was cultured under zinc restriction, and RNA-Seq was conducted in this study. The growth of was severely inhibited, and many genes showed significant upregulation and downregulation in with zinc deficiency. Zinc deficiency could negatively affect the gene expression and biological metabolic pathway in . The zinc-responsiveness transcriptional activator () gene was significantly upregulated and shared homology with . Thus, the gene might be the main transcription factor regulating zinc homeostasis. The gene knockout strain, ZafA-hph, was constructed -mediated transformation (ATMT) in for the first time to assess its function. growth ability, hair biodegradation ability, virulence test, and zinc absorption capacity in ZafA-hph and wild-type strains were compared. Results showed that the gene plays an important role in zinc absorption, expression of zinc transporter genes, and growth and pathogenicity in and can be used as a new drug target. Cutting off the zinc absorption pathway can be used as a way to prevent and control infection in .
马拉色菌，一种常见的致病性皮肤真菌，可引起人类和动物的皮肤癣菌病。锌是一种重要的微量元素，在真菌的生长和代谢中发挥着重要作用。目前，在马拉色菌中，锌缺乏对生长、基因表达和代谢途径的影响尚不清楚。因此，本研究在缺锌条件下培养马拉色菌，并进行 RNA-Seq 分析。结果表明，马拉色菌的生长受到严重抑制，许多基因在缺锌时表现出明显的上调和下调。锌缺乏会对马拉色菌的基因表达和生物代谢途径产生负面影响。锌反应性转录激活因子（ZafA）基因显著上调，与酿酒酵母中的同源。因此，ZafA基因可能是调节马拉色菌锌稳态的主要转录因子。本研究首次通过介导的转化（ATMT）构建了ZafA基因敲除突变株（ZafA-hph），并比较了 ZafA-hph 和野生型马拉色菌菌株在生长能力、毛发降解能力、毒力试验和锌吸收能力方面的差异。结果表明，ZafA基因在马拉色菌的锌吸收、锌转运基因表达、生长和致病性中发挥重要作用，可作为新的药物靶点。阻断锌吸收途径可作为预防和控制马拉色菌感染的一种方法。
