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14 Integration of Metabolism with Virulence in Candida albicans

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Fungal Genomics

Part of the book series: The Mycota ((MYCOTA,volume 13))

Abstract

The genome of the model pathogenic fungus Candida albicans was sequenced about a decade ago, facilitating unbiased genome-wide explorations of its pathobiology. These studies, in combination with the molecular and biochemical dissection of specific pathways and networks, have revealed that metabolic adaptation is intimately linked with the virulence of C. albicans. This fungus tunes its metabolic activity to specific host niches, and its virulence depends on the functionality of certain metabolic pathways. Also, its pathogenicity and antifungal drug susceptibility are modulated by growth on nutrients found in such niches. Specific regulators appear to coordinate the expression of metabolic functions with virulence factors such as yeast-hypha morphogenesis, thereby promoting host colonisation. It has become clear that the regulatory networks controlling certain metabolic pathways in C. albicans have undergone transcriptional rewiring in comparison with Saccharomyces cerevisiae, reflecting the evolutionary tuning of C. albicans to mammalian host niches.

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Abbreviations

3AT:

3-aminotriazole

bHLH:

β-helix loop helix domain

GCN response:

General amino acid control

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

GCRE:

GCN Response Element

uORF:

upstream Open Reading Frame

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to many colleagues for stimulating debates about Candida genomics, especially our friends in the Aberdeen Fungal Group and the European FINSysB Consortium and Ken Haynes and Jan Quinn. IVE and AJPB were supported by a grant from the European Commission (PITN-GA-2008-214004). AJPB was also supported by the European Research Council (ERC-2009-AdG-249793), the U.K. Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBS/B/06679; BB/C510391/1; BB/D009308/1; BB/F000111/1; BB/F010826/1; BB/F00513X/1), and the Wellcome Trust (080088; 097377).

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  1. Aberdeen Fungal Group, School of Medical Sciences, Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Foresterhill, Aberdeen, AB25 2ZD, UK

    Iuliana V. Ene & Alistair J. P. Brown

  2. Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912, USA

    Iuliana V. Ene

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  1. Iuliana V. Ene
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Correspondence to Alistair J. P. Brown .

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  1. Department of General and Molecular Bota, Ruhr-University of Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Minou Nowrousian

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Ene, I.V., Brown, A.J.P. (2014). 14 Integration of Metabolism with Virulence in Candida albicans . In: Nowrousian, M. (eds) Fungal Genomics. The Mycota, vol 13. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-45218-5_14

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