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Alternative oxidase induction protects Candida albicans from respiratory stress and promotes hyphal growth

Duvenage, Lucian and Walker, Louise A. and Bojarczuk, Aleksandra and Johnston, Simon A. and McCallum, Donna M. and Munro, Carol and Gourlay, Campbell W. (2018) Alternative oxidase induction protects Candida albicans from respiratory stress and promotes hyphal growth. [Preprint] (doi:10.1101/405670) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:97698)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
https://doi.org/10.1101/405670

Abstract

The human fungal pathogen Candida albicans possesses two genes expressing a cyanide-insensitive Alternative Oxidase (Aox) enzymes in addition to classical and parallel electron transfer chains (ETC). In this study, we examine the role of Aox in C. albicans under conditions of respiratory stress, which may be inflicted during its interaction with the human host or co-colonising bacteria. We find that the level of Aox expression is sufficient to modulate resistance to classical ETC inhibition under respiratory stress and are linked to gene expression changes that can promote both survival and pathogenicity. For example we demonstrate that Aox function is important for the regulation of filamentation in C. albicans and observe that cells lacking Aox function lose virulence in a zebrafish infection model. Our investigations also identify that pyocyanin, a phenazine produced by the co-colonising bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, inhibits Aox-based respiration in C. albicans. These results suggest that Aox plays important roles within respiratory stress response pathways which C. albicans may utilise both as a commensal organism and as a pathogen.

Item Type: Preprint
DOI/Identification number: 10.1101/405670
Refereed: No
Other identifier: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/405670v1
Name of pre-print platform: BioRViX
Uncontrolled keywords: Alternative Oxidase, Candida, mycology
Subjects: Q Science
Q Science > QR Microbiology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Natural Sciences > Biosciences
Funders: Wellcome Trust (https://ror.org/029chgv08)
Depositing User: Campbell Gourlay
Date Deposited: 30 Oct 2022 15:58 UTC
Last Modified: 03 Oct 2023 13:46 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/97698 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Gourlay, Campbell W..

Creator's ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2373-6788
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