title: Overexpression of a cloned IMP dehydrogenase gene of Candida albicans confers resistance to the specific inhibitor mycophenolic acid.
abstract: An IMP dehydrogenase gene was isolated from Candida albicans on a approximately 2.9-kb XbaI genomic DNA fragment. The putative Candida IMP dehydrogenase gene (IMH3) encodes a protein of 521 amino acids with extensive sequence similarity to the IMP dehydrogenases of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and various other organisms. Like the S. cerevisiae IMH3 sequence characterized in the genome sequencing project, the open reading frame of the C. albicans IMH3 gene is interrupted by a small intron (248 bp) with typical exon-intron boundaries and a consensus S. cerevisiae branchpoint sequence. IMP dehydrogenase mRNAs are detected in both the yeast and hyphal forms of C. albicans as judged by Northern hybridization. Growth of wild-type (sensitive) C. albicans cells is inhibited at 1 microg of mycophenolic acid (MPA), a specific inhibitor of IMP dehydrogenases, per ml, whereas transformants hosting a plasmid with the IMH3 gene are resistant to MPA levels of up to at least 40 microg/ml. The resistance of cells to MPA is gene dosage dependent and suggests that IMH3 can be used as a dominant selection marker in C. albicans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Stomatology, University of California-San Francisco, 94143-0422, USA.
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Köhler
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: White
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Agabian
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D002176:Candida albicans / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D016384:Consensus Sequence; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000235:genetics; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D005800:Genes, Fungal; D007168:IMP Dehydrogenase / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009173:Mycophenolic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014170:Transformation, Genetic
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; D005656:Fungal Proteins; D007168:IMP Dehydrogenase; D009173:Mycophenolic Acid