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- Title
CaSPA2 is important for polarity establishment and maintenance in Candida albicans.
- Authors
Xin-De Zheng, Alan; Yan-Ming Wang, Alan; Yue Wang
- Abstract
Summary Saccharomyces cerevisiae Spa2p is a component of polarisome that controls cell polarity. Here, we have characterized the role of its homologue, CaSpa2p, in the polarized growth in Candida albicans . During yeast growth, GFP-tagged CaSpa2p localized to distinct growth sites in a cell cycle-dependent manner, while during hyphal growth it persistently localized to hyphal tips throughout the cell cycle. Persistent tip localization of the protein was also observed in Catup1 Δ and Canrg1 Δ, mutants constitutive for filamentous growth. Caspa2 Δ exhibited defects in polarity establishment and maintenance, such as random budding and failure to confine growth to a small surface area leading to round cells with wide, elongated bud necks and markedly thicker hyphae. It was also defective in nuclear positioning, presumably a result of defective interactions between cytoplasmic microtubules with certain polarity determinants. The highly conserved SHD-I and SHD-V domains were found to be important and responsible for different aspects of CaSpa2p function. Caspa2 Δ exhibited no virulence in the mouse systemic candidiasis model. Because of the existence of distinct growth forms and the easy control of the switch between them in vitro , C. albicans may serve as a useful model in cell polarity research.
- Subjects
CANDIDA albicans; CELL polarity; BACTERIAL genetics
- Publication
Molecular Microbiology, 2003, Vol 49, Issue 5, p1391
- ISSN
0950-382X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1046/j.1365-2958.2003.03646.x