Manganese homeostasis modulates fungal virulence and stress tolerance in Candida albicans
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
ORGANISM(S): Candida albicans
PROVIDER: GSE245114 | GEO | 2024/02/13
REPOSITORIES: GEO
Similar Datasets
Project description:The interaction between fungal pathogen and host during infection is a complex and dynamic process. To resolve this, we chose the zebrafish model organism as the host to study C. albicans infection via systems biology approach. Transcriptome microarray data and histological analysis of surviving fish were sampled at different post-infection time points. The dynamic variations of significant genes expression profiles in C. albicans and zebrafish were concurrently analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA). The PCA results clearly indicated that the infection of C. albicans can be divided into three phases that include adhesion, invasion and damage phases. The results were highly consistent with subsequent histological analysis. Furthermore, we found the primary ontology function of genes with significant variations in both C. albicans and zebrafish is iron related. Most of the iron related genes in C. albicans were over-expressed in late stage, while most of the iron related genes in zebrafish were suppressed at the same phase of infection. It suggested that the iron homeostasis function of the host was shut-down when massive hemorrhage in zebrafish occurred during later stages of infection. At the same time, the iron scavenging function of C. albicans was activated. This implied the competition for iron is an important issue between the host and the fungal pathogen during infection. When we administered excess iron into the microenvironment of infection site, the infection process was significantly delayed. That indicated the virulence of C. albicans is correlated with its protein-bond iron scavenging strategies. Our finings not only provided dynamic mechanistic views of the iron competition but also highlighted the potential regulatory schemes in fungal pathogenesis.
2013-08-26 | GSE32118 | GEO
Project description:The interaction between fungal pathogen and host during infection is a complex and dynamic process. To resolve this, we chose the zebrafish model organism as the host to study C. albicans infection via systems biology approach. Transcriptome microarray data and histological analysis of surviving fish were sampled at different post-infection time points. The dynamic variations of significant genes expression profiles in C. albicans and zebrafish were concurrently analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA). The PCA results clearly indicated that the infection of C. albicans can be divided into three phases that include adhesion, invasion and damage phases. The results were highly consistent with subsequent histological analysis. Furthermore, we found the primary ontology function of genes with significant variations in both C. albicans and zebrafish is iron related. Most of the iron related genes in C. albicans were over-expressed in late stage, while most of the iron related genes in zebrafish were suppressed at the same phase of infection. It suggested that the iron homeostasis function of the host was shut-down when massive hemorrhage in zebrafish occurred during later stages of infection. At the same time, the iron scavenging function of C. albicans was activated. This implied the competition for iron is an important issue between the host and the fungal pathogen during infection. When we administered excess iron into the microenvironment of infection site, the infection process was significantly delayed. That indicated the virulence of C. albicans is correlated with its protein-bond iron scavenging strategies. Our finings not only provided dynamic mechanistic views of the iron competition but also highlighted the potential regulatory schemes in fungal pathogenesis.
2013-08-26 | GSE32117 | GEO
Project description:The interaction between fungal pathogen and host during infection is a complex and dynamic process. To resolve this, we chose the zebrafish model organism as the host to study C. albicans infection via systems biology approach. Transcriptome microarray data and histological analysis of surviving fish were sampled at different post-infection time points. The dynamic variations of significant genes expression profiles in C. albicans and zebrafish were concurrently analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA). The PCA results clearly indicated that the infection of C. albicans can be divided into three phases that include adhesion, invasion and damage phases. The results were highly consistent with subsequent histological analysis. Furthermore, we found the primary ontology function of genes with significant variations in both C. albicans and zebrafish is iron related. Most of the iron related genes in C. albicans were over-expressed in late stage, while most of the iron related genes in zebrafish were suppressed at the same phase of infection. It suggested that the iron homeostasis function of the host was shut-down when massive hemorrhage in zebrafish occurred during later stages of infection. At the same time, the iron scavenging function of C. albicans was activated. This implied the competition for iron is an important issue between the host and the fungal pathogen during infection. When we administered excess iron into the microenvironment of infection site, the infection process was significantly delayed. That indicated the virulence of C. albicans is correlated with its protein-bond iron scavenging strategies. Our finings not only provided dynamic mechanistic views of the iron competition but also highlighted the potential regulatory schemes in fungal pathogenesis. Each fish was intraperitoneally injected with C. albicans cells and these infected fish were collected at 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 18 hpi. 0.625M-NM-<g of Cy3 cRNA for C. albicans array and 1.65 M-NM-<g of Cy3 cRNA for zebrafish array was fragmented to an average size of about 50-100 nucleotides by incubation with fragmentation buffer at 60M-BM-0C for 30 minutes. Each time points contain three biological repeat. For C. albicans array, each biological repeat has two technical replicates.
2013-08-26 | E-GEOD-32117 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:The interaction between fungal pathogen and host during infection is a complex and dynamic process. To resolve this, we chose the zebrafish model organism as the host to study C. albicans infection via systems biology approach. Transcriptome microarray data and histological analysis of surviving fish were sampled at different post-infection time points. The dynamic variations of significant genes expression profiles in C. albicans and zebrafish were concurrently analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA). The PCA results clearly indicated that the infection of C. albicans can be divided into three phases that include adhesion, invasion and damage phases. The results were highly consistent with subsequent histological analysis. Furthermore, we found the primary ontology function of genes with significant variations in both C. albicans and zebrafish is iron related. Most of the iron related genes in C. albicans were over-expressed in late stage, while most of the iron related genes in zebrafish were suppressed at the same phase of infection. It suggested that the iron homeostasis function of the host was shut-down when massive hemorrhage in zebrafish occurred during later stages of infection. At the same time, the iron scavenging function of C. albicans was activated. This implied the competition for iron is an important issue between the host and the fungal pathogen during infection. When we administered excess iron into the microenvironment of infection site, the infection process was significantly delayed. That indicated the virulence of C. albicans is correlated with its protein-bond iron scavenging strategies. Our finings not only provided dynamic mechanistic views of the iron competition but also highlighted the potential regulatory schemes in fungal pathogenesis. Each fish was intraperitoneally injected with C. albicans cells and these infected fish were collected at 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 18 hpi. 0.625M-NM-<g of Cy3 cRNA for C. albicans array and 1.65 M-NM-<g of Cy3 cRNA for zebrafish array was fragmented to an average size of about 50-100 nucleotides by incubation with fragmentation buffer at 60M-BM-0C for 30 minutes. Each time points contain three biological repeat. For C. albicans array, each biological repeat has two technical replicate.
2013-08-26 | E-GEOD-32118 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Fungal diseases are critical burdens on the global healthcare system, infecting over 25% of the world’s population. For the opportunistic fungal pathogen, Cryptococcus neoformans, infection leads to cryptococcosis; a disease enabled by elaboration of sophisticated virulence factors, including polysaccharide capsule, melanin, thermotolerance, and extracellular enzymes in the presence of the host. Conversely, the host protects itself from fungal invasion by regulating and sequestering transition metals (e.g., iron, zinc, copper) important for microbial growth and survival. Building upon knowledge of zinc transport regulation at the transcriptional level, here, we explore the intricate relationship between zinc availability and fungal virulence via mass spectrometry-based quantitative proteomics. We observe distinct protein-level responses to zinc-limited and -excess conditions through a shift of the proteome profile towards stress response and metal acquisition, including the upregulation of the zinc transporter, ZIP1. In addition, we reveal a novel connection among zinc availability, protein folding, capsule production, and virulence through the detection of a Wos2-like ortholog in the secretome under replete conditions. Overall, we provide new biological insight into cellular remodeling at the protein level of C. neoformans under regulated zinc conditions and uncover a novel connection between zinc availability and fungal virulence. These findings support the development of new antifungal strategies focused on the enhancement of nutritional immunity within the host.
2022-02-16 | PXD023204 | Pride
Project description:Candida albicans, the causative agent of mucosal infections including oropharyngeal candidiasis (OPC) as well as bloodstream infections is becoming increasingly resistant to existing treatment options. In the absence of novel drug candidates, drug repurposing aimed at using existing drugs to treat off label diseases is a promising strategy. C. albicans requires environmental iron for survival and virulence while host nutritional immunity deploys iron-binding proteins to sequester iron and reduce fungal growth. Here we evaluated the role of iron-limitation using Deferasirox (an FDA approved iron chelator for treatment of patients with iron overload) during murine OPC; and assessed Deferasirox-treated C. albicans for its interaction with human oral epithelial (OE), neutrophils, and antimicrobial peptides. Therapeutic Deferasirox treatment significantly reduced salivary iron levels while a non-significant reduction in fungal burden was observed. Preventive treatment that allowed for two additional days of drug administration in our murine model, resulted in significant reduction of C. albicans colony forming units (CFU)/g of tongue tissue, a significant reduction in salivary iron levels, and significantly reduced neutrophil-mediated inflammation. C. albicans harvested from tongues of animals undergoing preventive treatment had differential expression of 106 genes, including those involved in iron metabolism, adhesion, and response to host innate immunity. Moreover, Deferasirox-treated C. albicans cells had two-fold reduction in survival in neutrophil phagosomes (with greater susceptibility to oxidative stress); and reduced adhesion and invasion of OE cells, in vitro. Thus Deferasirox treatment has the potential to alleviate OPC by affecting C. albicans gene expression and reducing virulence
2018-12-04 | GSE123277 | GEO
Project description:The zinc cluster proteins are a family of transcription factors that are unique to the fungal kingdom. In the pathogenic yeast Candida albicans, zinc cluster transcription factors control the expression of virulence-associated traits and play key roles in the development of antifungal drug resistance. Gain-of-function mutations in several zinc cluster transcription factors, which result in constitutive overexpression of their target genes, are a frequent cause of azole resistance in clinical C. albicans isolates. We found that zinc cluster proteins can also be artificially activated by C-terminal fusion with the heterologous Gal4 activation domain. We used this strategy to create a comprehensive library of C. albicans strains expressing all 82 zinc cluster transcription factors of this fungus in a potentially hyperactive form. Screening of this library identified regulators of invasive filamentous growth and other phenotypes that are important during an infection. In addition, the approach uncovered several novel mediators of fluconazole resistance, including the multidrug resistance regulator Mrr2, which controls the expression of the major C. albicans multidrug efflux pump CDR1. Artificial activation therefore is a highly useful method to study the role of zinc cluster transcription factors in C. albicans and other fungi of medical, agricultural, and biotechnological importance. In total, 15 samples are analysed: 3 replicates of 5 different strains. The 3 replicates of SC5314 are the wild type reference.
2013-07-29 | E-GEOD-48259 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Regulation of gene expression programs is crucial for the survival of microbial pathogens in host environments and for their ability to cause disease. Here we investigated the epigenetic regulator RSC (Remodels the Structure of Chromatin) in the most prevalent human fungal pathogen Candida albicans. Biochemical analysis showed that CaRSC comprises 13 subunits and contains two novel non-essential members, which we named Nri1 and Nri2 (Novel RSC Interactors) that are exclusive to the CTG clade of Saccharomycotina. Genetic analysis showed distinct essentiality of C. albicans RSC subunits compared to model fungal species suggesting functional and structural divergence of RSC functions in this fungal pathogen. Transcriptomic and proteomic profiling of a conditional mutant of the essential catalytic subunit STH1 demonstrated global roles of RSC in C. albicans biology, with the majority of growth-related processes affected, as well as mis-regulation of genes involved in morphotype switching, host-pathogen interaction and adaptive fitness. We further assessed the functions of non-essential CaRSC subunits, showing that the novel subunit Nri1 and the bromodomain subunit Rsc4 play roles in filamentation and stress responses; and also interacted at the genetic level to regulate cell viability. Consistent with these roles, Rsc4 is required for full virulence of C. albicans in the murine model of systemic infection. Taken together, our data builds the first comprehensive study of the composition and roles of RSC in C. albicans, showing conserved and distinct features compared to model fungal systems, and illuminating how C. albicans uses RSC-dependent transcriptional regulation to respond to environmental signals and drive fitness and virulence in mammals.
2020-11-19 | GSE145831 | GEO
Project description:Candia albicans is an opportunist pathogen responsible for a large spectrum of infections, from superficial mycosis to systemic diseases called candidiasis. Its ability to grow in various morphological forms, such as yeast and filamentous hyphae, contributes to its survival in the diverse microenvironments it encounters in the host, differing in key micronutrients and iron contents. In C. albicans, iron uptake has been associated with virulence and the pathogen has developed elaborated strategies to acquire iron from the host. In this study, we performed a global proteomic analysis of the changes of protein abundances in response to iron, and correlated these data with morphological and functional studies of the main metabolic pathways of the pathogen, both in the yeast and filamentous forms. Our results show that C. albicans yeast cells have an extraordinary capability to adapt to both iron excess and iron deficiency. Moreover, changes of iron content in the growth medium are associated with a metabolic remodeling affecting intracellular glutathione levels and reduced thiol groups, but also enzymes of the TCA cycle, the pentose phosphate pathway or the mitochondrial respiratory chain. Our data indicate that iron-deficiency stimulates the bioenergetics pathways, whereas iron excess corresponds to more biosynthetic needs, especially in the filamentous forms. Altogether, our results emphasize the influence of the environment of C. albicans cells on the filamentation process, and show evidence for the differences between the yeast and filamentous forms, which seem to adapt more easily in response to a large set of iron conditions.
2020-05-26 | PXD010881 | Pride
Project description:The opportunistic fungal pathogen Candida albicans is a common cause of life-threatening nosocomial bloodstream infections. In the murine model of systemic candidiasis the kidney is the primary target organ while the fungal load declines over time in liver and spleen. To get a better understanding of the organ-specific differences in host-pathogen interaction during systemic murine candidiasis, we performed a time-course gene expression profiling to investigate the differential responses of murine kidney, liver and spleen and determined the fungal transcriptome in liver and kidney. We clearly demonstrate a delayed immune response on the transcriptional level in kidney accompanied by late induction of fungal stress response genes in this organ. In contrast, early upregulation of the proinflammatory response in the liver was associated with a fungal transcriptional profile resembling that of phagocytosed cells, suggesting that the resident phagocytic system contributes significantly to fungal control in the liver. Although no visible filamentation occurred in the liver, C. albicans hypha-associated genes were upregulated, indicating an uncoupling of gene expression and morphology during infection of this organ. In vitro the induction of hypha-associated gene expression in yeast cells led to altered interaction with macrophages, suggesting that the observed transcriptional changes affect host-pathogen interaction in vivo. Consistently, the combination of host and pathogen transcriptional data in an inference network model implied that C. albicans cell wall remodeling and metabolism were connected to the immune responses in kidney and liver. Furthermore, the network suggested links between fungal iron acquisition and amino acid metabolism in the kidney and host organ homeostasis. Thus, this work provides novel insights into the organ-specific host-pathogen interactions during systemic C. albicans infection.
2016-11-18 | GSE83679 | GEO