title: D-arabitol metabolism in Candida albicans: studies of the biosynthetic pathway and the gene that encodes NAD-dependent D-arabitol dehydrogenase.
abstract: Candida albicans produces large amounts of the pentitol D-arabitol in culture and in infected mammalian hosts, but the functional and pathogenic significance of D-arabitol in C. albicans is not known. In this study, we sought to elucidate the pathway by which C. albicans synthesizes D-arabitol and to identify and characterize key enzymes in this pathway. C. albicans B311 produced D-[14C-1]arabitol from [14C-2]glucose; this finding implies on structural grounds that D-ribulose-5-PO4 from the pentose pathway is the major metabolic precursor of D-arabitol. NAD- or NADP-dependent pentitol dehydrogenases catalyze the final steps in D-arabitol biosynthesis in other fungi; therefore, lysates of C. albicans B311 were tested for enzymes of this class and were found to contain a previously unknown NAD-dependent D-arabitol dehydrogenase (ArDH). The ArDH structural gene was cloned by constructing a new D-arabitol utilization pathway in Escherichia coli. The C. albicans ArDH gene expressed in E. coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae an enzyme that catalyzes the reaction D-arabitol + NAD <-->D-ribulose + NADH; this gene was present as a single copy per haploid genome, and its deduced peptide sequence was homologous with sequences of several members of the short-chain dehydrogenase family of enzymes. These results suggest that (i) C. albicans synthesizes D-arabitol by dephosphorylating and reducing the pentose pathway intermediate D-ribulose-5-PO4 and (ii) ArDH catalyzes the final step in this pathway.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Ohio 45267-0560.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Murray
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Castellanos
authors.forename: K D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Croen
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D002176:Candida albicans / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009243:NAD / Q000378:metabolism; D010427:Pentose Phosphate Pathway; D010957:Plasmids; D011865:Radioisotope Dilution Technique; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013401:Sugar Alcohol Dehydrogenases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D013402:Sugar Alcohols / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D013402:Sugar Alcohols; D009243:NAD; D013401:Sugar Alcohol Dehydrogenases; C022751:D-arabinitol dehydrogenase; D005947:Glucose; C014999:arabitol