Project description:The melanized yeast Exophiala dermatitidis is resistant to many environmental stresses, and is used as a model for understanding the diverse roles of melanin in fungi. To further our understanding resistance mechanism of E. dermatitidis to acute γ-radiation exposure and whether melanin plays a role in this process, we performed RNA-seq on WT and the melanin deficient mutant Δpks1 cultures exposed to γ-radiation at the dose of 1000 Gy, which resulted in ~50% cell deaths in both strains. We observed a dramatic transcriptomic response to γ-radiation that mobilizes pathways involved in morphological development, protein degradation, and DNA repair, and is unaffected by the presence of melanin.
Project description:Comparative genomic and transcriptomic analysis of Wangiella dermatitidis, a major cause of phaeohyphomycosis and a model black yeast human pathogen
Project description:The yeast E. dermatitidis is highly resistant to ionizing particle irradiation, and exposure to this stress elicits a transcriptomic response that is distinct from that induced by photonic irradiation. Melanin, in this organism, does not exhibit substantial control over this transcriptomic response, nor does it protect the cells from radiation-induced death under the conditions we tested. However, the strong response we observed here at the gene expression level inprovides insights into the unique types of damage that particle irradiation causes to fungal cells, allowing for future dissection of radiation source-specific resistance mechanisms.
Project description:Fungal peritonitis is frequent on peritoneal dialysis, with rare cases by Exophiala dermatitidis. A 25-month-old female admitted to the pediatric ICU with acute renal failure was submitted to peritoneal dialysis. After 10 days patient presented fever. Peritoneal fluid culture showed yeast colonies molecularly identified as E. dermatitidis. Patient was treated with voriconazole and hemodialysis. The literature was reviewed. Disseminated infections are frequently fatal, but appropriate diagnose and therapeutic led to cure in this case.
Project description:Exophiala dermatitidis is a polyextremotolerant fungus with a small genome, thus suitable as a model system for melanogenesis and carotenogensis. A genome-scale model, iEde2091, is reconstructed to increase metabolic understanding and used in a shadow price analysis of pigments, as detailed here. Important to this reconstruction is OptFill, a recently developed alternative gap-filling method useful in the holistic and conservative reconstruction of genome-scale models of metabolism, particularly for understudied organisms like E. dermatitidis where gaps in metabolic knowledge are abundant. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Schroeder and Saha (2020) and Schroeder et al. (2020).
