Phosphatidylinositol-dependent phospholipases C Plc2 and Plc3 of Candida albicans are dispensable for morphogenesis and host-pathogen interaction.
Phospholipases play an important role as virulence factors in human pathogens. Candida albicans, the major fungal pathogen of humans, encodes phospholipases of type A, B, C and D. Type B Plb2 and type D Pld1 phospholipases have been shown to contribute to virulence in this organism. We analyzed, in C. albicans, PLC2 and PLC3, two highly conserved genes coding for phosphatidylinositol-dependent phospholipases C with homology to the known virulence factor PlcA in the human pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. We show that expression of PLC2 and PLC3 is upregulated under different filament-inducing conditions and in the constitutive filamentous mutant tup1Delta. In order to analyze PLC2 and PLC3 function in C. albicans, we constructed strains that carry PLC2 or PLC3 under a constitutive promoter and strains that lack all four PLC2/3 alleles. These strains were not affected in their ability to produce filaments under non-inducing conditions, nor was filamentation modified under inducing conditions, suggesting that PLC2/3 are not critical determinants of the yeast-to-hypha switch. In a cell culture model for macrophage interaction, phagocytosis of C. albicans and subsequent killing were not influenced by PLC2/3. These results demonstrate that C. albicans PLC2 and PLC3 are dispensable for virulence; moreover, they underline the sharp contrast with the function of plcA in L. monocytogenes.
Knechtle
Philipp
P
Unité Postulante Biologie et Pathogénicité Fongiques, INRA USC 2019, Institut Pasteur, 25-28 rue du Docteur Roux, 75724 Paris Cedex 15, France.
Goyard
Sophie
S
Brachat
Sophie
S
Ibrahim-Granet
Oumaïma
O
d'Enfert
Christophe
C
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002176:Candida albicans / Q000166:cytology / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D002460:Cell Line; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D017353:Gene Deletion; D015966:Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal; D005800:Genes, Fungal; D025301:Hyphae / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D008264:Macrophages / Q000382:microbiology; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009024:Morphogenesis; D010587:Phagocytosis; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D010738:Type C Phospholipases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D014774:Virulence
D005656:Fungal Proteins; D010738:Type C Phospholipases