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    Eukaryot Cell. 2011 Nov;10(11):1448-54. doi: 10.1128/EC.05196-11. Epub 2011 Sep 2.

    Zap1 control of cell-cell signaling in Candida albicans biofilms.

    Source

    Department of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.

    Abstract

    Biofilms of Candida albicans include both yeast cells and hyphae. Prior studies indicated that a zap1Δ/Δ mutant, defective in zinc regulator Zap1, has increased accumulation of yeast cells in biofilms. This altered yeast-hypha balance may arise from internal regulatory alterations or from an effect on the production of diffusible quorum-sensing (QS) molecules. Here, we develop biosensor reporter strains that express yeast-specific YWP1-RFP or hypha-specific HWP1-RFP, along with a constitutive TDH3-GFP normalization standard. Seeding these biosensor strains into biofilms allows a biological activity assay of the surrounding biofilm milieu. A zap1Δ/Δ biofilm induces the yeast-specific YWP1-RFP reporter in a wild-type biosensor strain, as determined by both quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) gene expression measurements and confocal microscopy. Remediation of the zap1Δ/Δ zinc uptake defect through zinc transporter gene ZRT2 overexpression reverses induction of the yeast-specific YWP1-RFP reporter. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) measurements of known organic QS molecules show that the zap1Δ/Δ mutant accumulates significantly less farnesol than wild-type or complemented strains and that ZRT2 overexpression does not affect farnesol accumulation. Farnesol is a well-characterized inhibitor of hypha formation; hence, a reduction in farnesol levels in zap1Δ/Δ biofilms is unexpected. Our findings argue that a Zap1- and zinc-dependent signal affects the yeast-hypha balance and that it is operative in the low-farnesol environment of the zap1Δ/Δ biofilm. In addition, our results indicate that Zap1 is a positive regulator of farnesol accumulation.

    PMID:
    21890817
    [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
    PMCID:
    PMC3209068
    Free PMC Article

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