Site-specific functions of the Efg1 regulator in Candida albicans
Final Report Abstract
The human fungal pathogen Candida albicans adapts to low-oxygen conditions and represses its hyphal development by the transcription factor Efg1, which under normoxia activates filamentation. Hypoxic and normoxic functions of Efg1 were found to require different Efg1 structures. Analyses of the genome-wide position of Efg1 revealed a set of hypoxic target genes shared with the transcription factors Ace2, Brg1 and Bcr1. These proteins form an interconnected regulatory hub that controls hypoxic gene expression. Specifically, Efg1 and Bcr1 repress hypoxic filamentation via the Cek1 MAPK pathway, presumably to persist as a commensal yeast in the human host. Attempts to isolate apical hyphal cells as site of Efg1 action were unsuccessful because of low fluorescence staining using apical promoters. By a modified yeast two-hybrid approach, proteins Cka1 and Lig1 were identified as novel interacting proteins of Efg1.
Publications
- (2013) Morphogenesis-regulated localization of protein kinase A to genomic sites in Candida albicans. BMC Genomics 14:842
Schaekel, A., Desai, P. R., Ernst, J. F.
- (2015) Hypoxia and Temperature Regulated Morphogenesis in Candida albicans. PLoS Genet 11(8): e1005447
Desai, P., van Wijlick, L., Kurtz, D., Juchimiuk, M., Ernst, J.F.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1005447)
