Identification of the Candida albicans CAP1 regulon

ABSTRACT: Cap1p, a transcription factor of the basic region-leucine zipper family, controls the oxidative stress response in Candida albicans. It was shown that alteration of the C-terminal cysteine-rich domain (CRD) of Cap1p results in nuclear retention and constitutive transcriptional activation. To further characterize the function of Cap1p in C. albicans, we used genome-wide location profiling (ChIP-on-chip), allowing the identification of Cap1p-transcriptional targets in vivo. Location profiling using a tiled-oligonucleotide DNA microarray identified 89 targets that were bound by Cap1p-HA3 or Cap1p-CSE-HA3 (binding ratio ≥ 2-fold, P ≤ 0.01). Strikingly, Cap1p binding was not only detected at the promoter region of its target genes but also at their 3'-end and within their open-reading frame. Overrepresented functional groups of Cap1p targets (P ≤ 0.02) included notably 11 genes involved in response to oxidative stress (CAP1, GLR1, TRX1, others), 13 genes involved in response to drug (PDR16, MDR1, FLU1, others) and 3 genes involved in regulation of nitrogen utilization (orf19.2693, orf19.3121 and GST3). Bioinformatic analyses suggested that Cap1p binds to the DNA motif 5'- MTKASTMA. Transcriptome analyses showed that increased expression of most of Cap1p targets accompanies Cap1p binding at these targets, indicating that Cap1p is a transcriptional activator. We conclude that, in addition to protecting the cell against oxidative stress, Cap1p appears to have other functions including drug resistance and the regulation of nitrogen utilization. The atypical binding pattern of Cap1p suggests that this transcription factor may associate with the transcriptional or the chromatin remodeling machinery to exert its activity. We performed three gene expression profile comparisons: (1) benomyl-induced gene expression in a strain containing wildtype CAP1 (CJD21/PMK-CAP1 +/- benomyl), (2) benomyl-induced gene expression in a strain where CAP1 is disrupted (CJD21/PMK +/- benomyl), and (3) gene expression in a strain containing a hyperactive allele of CAP1 compared to a strain containing wildtype CAP1 (CJD21/PMK-CAP1-CSE vs. CJD21/PMK-CAP1). There were three biological replicates (each drug-treated and untreated strain was grown/treated in three independent experiments). Since our Affymetrix platform requires each sample is hybridized on a separate chip, there is no dye-swapping. For each benomyl-treatment experiment (comparisons 1 and 2 above), the untreated (diluent-treated) samples are the reference samples. For comparison 3, the CJD21-PMK-CAP1 sample is the reference sample.

ORGANISM(S): Candida albicans

SUBMITTER: Genevieve Boucher 

PROVIDER: E-GEOD-14258 | biostudies-arrayexpress |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress