The pbrB gene encodes a laccase required for DHN-melanin synthesis in conidia of Talaromyces (Penicillium) marneffei.

ABSTRACT: Talaromyces marneffei (Basionym: Penicillium marneffei) is a significant opportunistic fungal pathogen in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus in Southeast Asia. T. marneffei cells have been shown to become melanized in vivo. Melanins are pigment biopolymers which act as a non-specific protectant against various stressors and which play an important role during virulence in fungi. The synthesis of the two most commonly found melanins in fungi, the eumelanin DOPA-melanin and the allomelanin DHN-melanin, requires the action of laccase enzymes. The T. marneffei genome encodes a number of laccases and this study describes the characterization of one of these, pbrB, during growth and development. A strain carrying a PbrB-GFP fusion shows that pbrB is expressed at high levels duri

SUBMITTER: Sapmak A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4395095 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature