The Candida albicans transcription factor Cas5 couples stress responses, drug resistance and cell cycle regulation.
Jinglin L XieLongguang QinZhengqiang MiaoBen T GrysJacinto De La Cruz DiazKenneth TingJonathan R KriegerJiefei TongKaeling TanMichelle D LeachTroy KetelaMichael F MoranDamian J KrysanCharles BooneBrenda J AndrewsAnna SelmeckiKoon Ho WongNicole RobbinsLeah E CowenPublished in: Nature communications (2017)
The capacity to coordinate environmental sensing with initiation of cellular responses underpins microbial survival and is crucial for virulence and stress responses in microbial pathogens. Here we define circuitry that enables the fungal pathogen Candida albicans to couple cell cycle dynamics with responses to cell wall stress induced by echinocandins, a front-line class of antifungal drugs. We discover that the C. albicans transcription factor Cas5 is crucial for proper cell cycle dynamics and responses to echinocandins, which inhibit β-1,3-glucan synthesis. Cas5 has distinct transcriptional targets under basal and stress conditions, is activated by the phosphatase Glc7, and can regulate the expression of target genes in concert with the transcriptional regulators Swi4 and Swi6. Thus, we illuminate a mechanism of transcriptional control that couples cell wall integrity with cell cycle regulation, and uncover circuitry governing antifungal drug resistance.Cas5 is a transcriptional regulator of responses to cell wall stress in the fungal pathogen Candida albicans. Here, Xie et al. show that Cas5 also modulates cell cycle dynamics and responses to antifungal drugs.
Keyphrases
- cell cycle
- candida albicans
- cell wall
- transcription factor
- biofilm formation
- crispr cas
- genome editing
- cell proliferation
- gene expression
- dna binding
- microbial community
- genome wide identification
- pseudomonas aeruginosa
- staphylococcus aureus
- heat stress
- multidrug resistant
- genome wide
- dna methylation
- antimicrobial resistance
- protein kinase
- heat shock protein