| Title: | Candida albicans MTLa2 regulates the mating response through both the a-factor and alpha-factor sensing pathways |
| Author(s): | Li C; Tao L; Guan Z; Hu T; Wang S; Liang W; Zhao F; Huang G; |
| Address: | "State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. Department of Infectious Diseases, Huashan Hospital and State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. Department of Infectious Diseases, Huashan Hospital and State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. Electronic address: huanggh@fudan.edu.cn" |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.fgb.2022.103664 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1096-0937 (Electronic) 1087-1845 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "The diploid fungal pathogen Candida albicans has three configurations at the mating type locus (MTL): heterozygous (a/alpha) and homozygous (a/a or alpha/alpha). C. albicans MTL locus encodes four transcriptional regulators (MTLa1, a2, alpha1, and alpha2). The conserved a1/alpha2 heterodimer controls not only mating competency but also white-opaque heritable phenotypic switching. However, the regulatory roles of MTLa2 and alpha1 are more complex and remain to be investigated. MTLa/a cells often express a cell type-specific genes and mate as the a-type partner, whereas MTLalpha/alpha cells express alpha-specific genes and mate as the alpha-type partner. In this study, we report that the MTLa2 regulator controls the formation of mating projections through both the a- and alpha-pheromone-sensing pathways and thus results in the bi-mater feature of 'alpha cells' of C. albicans. Ectopic expression of MTLa2 in opaque alpha cells activates the expression of not only MFA1 and STE3 (a-pheromone receptor) but also MFalpha1 and STE2 (alpha-pheromone receptor). Inactivation of either the MFa-Ste3 or MFalpha-Ste2 pheromone-sensing pathway cannot block the MTLa2-induced development of mating projections. However, the case is different in MTLalpha1-ectopically expressed opaque a cells. Inactivation of the MFalpha-Ste2 but not the MFa-Ste3 pheromone-sensing pathway blocks MTLalpha1-induced development of mating projections. Therefore, MTLa2 and MTLalpha1 exhibit distinct regulatory features that control the mating response in C. albicans. These findings shed new light on the regulatory mechanism of bi-mating behaviors and sexual reproduction in C. albicans" |
| Keywords: | "*Candida albicans/metabolism Fungal Proteins/genetics/metabolism Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal/genetics *Genes, Mating Type, Fungal/genetics Pheromones/genetics Receptors, Pheromone/genetics/metabolism Reproduction Bi-mating behaviors Candida albican;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineLi, Chao Tao, Li Guan, Zhangyue Hu, Tianren Wang, Sijia Liang, Weihong Zhao, Fei Huang, Guanghua eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't 2022/01/14 Fungal Genet Biol. 2022 Apr; 159:103664. doi: 10.1016/j.fgb.2022.103664. Epub 2022 Jan 10" |
