NGT1 Is Essential for N-Acetylglucosamine-Mediated Filamentous Growth Inhibition and HXK1 Functions as a Positive Regulator of Filamentous Growth in Candida tropicalis

摘要

is a pathogenic fungus that can cause opportunistic infections in humans. The ability of species to transition between yeast and filamentous growth forms is essential to their ability to undergo environmental adaptation and to maintain virulence. In other fungal species, such as , -acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) can induce filamentous growth, whereas it suppresses such growth in . In the present study, we found that knocking out the GlcNA-specific transporter gene was sufficient to enhance filamentous growth on Lee’s plus GlcNAc medium. This suggests that GlcNAc uptake into cells is essential to the disruption of mycelial growth. As such, we further studied how GlcNAc catabolism-related genes were able to influence filamentation. We found that overexpression drove filamentous growth on Lee’s media containing glucose and GlcNAc, whereas the deletion of the same gene disrupted this filamentous growth. Interestingly, the deletion of the or genes impaired growth on Lee’s plus GlcNAc plates. Overall, these results indicate that can serve as a positive regulator of filamentous growth, with excess GlcNAc-6-PO accumulation being toxic to . These findings may highlight novel therapeutic targets worthy of future investigation.