1. Mitochondrial phosphate carrier plays an important role in virulence of <italic>Candida albicans</italic>.
- Author
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Hu, Qiao-Ling, Zhong, Hua, Wang, Xin-Rong, Han, Lei, Ma, Shan-Shan, Li, Ling, and Wang, Yan
- Abstract
Candida albicans is a common fungal pathogen that can cause life-threatening infections.MIR1 is considered to be a mitochondrial phosphate carrier ofC. albicans , while its role in virulence has not been fully elucidated. In this study, we found thatmir1Δ/Δ mutant exhibited severe virulence defect in both nematode and murine models. Further mechanism studies revealed that themir1Δ/Δ mutant grew more slowly than the wild-type strain and showed severe filamentation defects on the hypha-inducing agar media, including YPD + serum, Lee, Spider + glucose, SLAD, SLD, and YPS. Furthermore, the loss ofMIR1 resulted in unfermentable carbon utilisation defect, ATP decrease, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation inC. albicans . Antioxidant proanthocyanidins, vitamin E, and N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) could reduce intracellular ROS levels and partially rescue the filamentation defects of themir1Δ/Δ mutant. Accordingly, hypha-specific genes, as well asCEK1 andRIM101 were down-regulated in themir1Δ/Δ mutant, and this down-regulation could be partially rescued by the addition of the antioxidant NAC. Collectively,MIR1 plays an important role inC. albicans mitochondrial function, filamentation and virulence, and would be a promising antifungal target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2024
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