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- Title
Candida albicans exploits N-acetylglucosamine as a gut signal to establish the balance between commensalism and pathogenesis.
- Authors
Yang, Dandan; Zhang, Mao; Su, Chang; Dong, Bin; Lu, Yang
- Abstract
Candida albicans is a benign member of gut microbiota, but also causes life-threatening disseminated infections, suggesting that this fungus commensalism has evolved with retention of virulence traits. Here we reveal that N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) enables C. albicans to balance between commensalism and pathogenesis. Although GlcNAc catabolism is beneficial for commensal growth of C. albicans, deleting GlcNAc sensor-transducer Ngs1 confers enhanced fitness, indicating that GlcNAc signaling is detrimental to commensalism. Interestingly, addition of GlcNAc attenuates commensal fitness of gut-evolved C. albicans but retains its disease-causing potential. We further demonstrate that GlcNAc is a major inducer of hypha-associated transcription in the gut, which represents the key determinant for commensal-pathogenic equilibrium. In addition to yeast-to-hypha morphogenesis, we also identify other factors, including Sod5 and Ofi1, that contribute to the balance. Thus, C. albicans uses GlcNAc to build up a tradeoff between fungal programs supporting commensalism and virulence, which may explain its success as a commensal and pathogen. The mechanisms by which opportunistic pathogens shift between commensalism and pathogenesis remains poorly understood. Here, the authors show that N-acetylglucosamine, a carbon source enriched in the gut, plays a role in modulating commensal-pathogenic balance in Candida albicans.
- Subjects
CANDIDA albicans; COMMENSALISM; N-acetylglucosamine; PATHOGENESIS
- Publication
Nature Communications, 2023, Vol 14, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
2041-1723
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/s41467-023-39284-w