Project description:Transcriptional profiling of Candida albicans cells grown under planktonic and biofilm-inducing conditions, comparing SN76 and sfl1Δ/sfl1Δ strains. Goal was to study the effect of SFL1 deletion on the transcriptomic profile of C. albicans planktonic and biofilm cells under acidic conditions, in order to reveal the function of the Sfl1 transcription factor in C. albicans biofilm development.
Project description:This set of experiment was done in order to analyze the effect of a dysfunctional mitochondria on C. albicans. The mutant was obtained by deleting the gene FZO1, which is known to be involved in mitochondrial biogenesis in S. cerevisiae. We show that the deletion of FZO1 leads to a change in mitochondrial morphology, which affects the mitochondrial membrane potential and causes the loss of mtDNA. Upon performing a transcriptome analysis, we observed that the mutant showed upregulation of genes like AOX2, MDR1 etc., while the genes involved in iron uptake were dysregulated. Besides, genes involved in cell wall biosynthesis were also downregulated. Genotypic Technology Pvt. Ltd. designed Custom Whole Genome Candida albicans 8x15k GE Microarray (AMADID-026377).
Project description:Goal: We employed RNA-seq to identify targets of regulation of the Candida albicans transcription regulator CUP9. The cup9 deletion mutant strain displays increased fitness in a mouse model of oropharyngeal candidiasis.
Project description:The human gut acts as the main reservoir of microbes and a relevant source of life-threatening infections, especially in immunocompromised patients. There, the opportunistic fungal pathogen Candida albicans adapts to the host environment and additionally interacts with residing bacteria. We investigated fungal-bacterial interactions by coinfecting enterocytes with the yeast Candida albicans and the Gram-negative bacterium Proteus mirabilis resulting in enhanced host cell damage. This synergistic effect was conserved across different P. mirabilis isolates and occurred also with non-albicans Candida species and C. albicans mutants defective in filamentation or candidalysin production. Using bacterial deletion mutants, we identified the P. mirabilis hemolysin HpmA to be the key effector for host cell destruction. Spatially separated coinfections demonstrated that synergism between Candida and Proteus is induced by contact, but also by soluble factors. Specifically, we identified Candida-mediated glucose consumption and farnesol production as potential triggers for Proteus virulence. In summary, our study demonstrates that coinfection of enterocytes with C. albicans and P. mirabilis can result in increased host cell damage which is mediated by bacterial virulence factors as a result of fungal niche modification via nutrient consumption and production of soluble factors. This supports the notion that certain fungal-bacterial combinations have the potential to result in enhanced virulence in niches such as the gut and might therefore promote translocation and dissemination.
