Stress combined with loss of the Candida albicans SUMO protease Ulp2 triggers selection of aneuploidy via a two-step process.
Marzia RizzoNatthapon SoisangwanSamuel Vega-EstevezRobert Jordan PriceChloe UylElise IracaneMatt ShawJan SoetaertAnna SelmeckiAlessia BuscainoPublished in: PLoS genetics (2022)
A delicate balance between genome stability and instability ensures genome integrity while generating genetic diversity, a critical step for evolution. Indeed, while excessive genome instability is harmful, moderated genome instability can drive adaptation to novel environments by maximising genetic variation. Candida albicans, a human fungal pathogen that colonises different parts of the human body, adapts rapidly and frequently to different hostile host microenvironments. In this organism, the ability to generate large-scale genomic variation is a key adaptative mechanism triggering dangerous infections even in the presence of antifungal drugs. Understanding how fitter novel karyotypes are selected is key to determining how C. albicans and other microbial pathogens establish infections. Here, we identified the SUMO protease Ulp2 as a regulator of C. albicans genome integrity through genetic screening. Deletion of ULP2 leads to increased genome instability, enhanced genome variation and reduced fitness in the absence of additional stress. The combined stress caused by the lack of ULP2 and antifungal drug treatment leads to the selection of adaptive segmental aneuploidies that partially rescue the fitness defects of ulp2Δ/Δ cells. Short and long-read genomic sequencing demonstrates that these novel genotypes are selected via a two-step process leading to the formation of novel chromosomal fragments with breakpoints at microhomology regions and DNA repeats.
Keyphrases
- candida albicans
- biofilm formation
- genome wide
- endothelial cells
- copy number
- genetic diversity
- physical activity
- body composition
- induced pluripotent stem cells
- oxidative stress
- staphylococcus aureus
- dna methylation
- stress induced
- microbial community
- transcription factor
- cystic fibrosis
- gene expression
- pseudomonas aeruginosa
- escherichia coli
- single cell
- cell cycle arrest
- drug induced
- cell proliferation
- cell death
- multidrug resistant
- combination therapy
- heat stress
- pi k akt