Functional analysis of three LisH-containing proteins in the hyphal development of Candida albicans

摘要

Candida albicans is an important opportunistic fungal pathogen in humans. The ability of hyphal development is critical for its pathogenesis and virulence. During hyphal development, the expressions of hypha-specific genes are regulated by numerous factors. LisH domain is a conserved dimerization motif and exists in multiple proteins associated with polarized cell growth. Bioinformatic analysis showed that there are five Lis-containing proteins in Candida albicans genome, i.e. Flo8, Mss11, Taf5 (Orf19.536), Sif2 (Orf19.132) and Orf19.6255. Flo8 and Mssll were previously reported to function as transcriptional regulators and play important roles in the hyphal development of C. albicans. In this study, we analyzed the remaining three LisH-containing proteins. Our data show that Taf5 functions as a positive regulator while Sif2 functions as a repressive regulator during hyphal development via LisH-dependent manners. Deletion of ORF19.6255 had no detectable effects on hyphal development under common hyphal induction conditions.