title: Proteomic Analysis of Pathogenic Fungi Reveals Highly Expressed Conserved Cell Wall Proteins.
abstract: We are presenting a quantitative proteomics tally of the most commonly expressed conserved fungal proteins of the cytosol, the cell wall, and the secretome. It was our goal to identify fungi-typical proteins that do not share significant homology with human proteins. Such fungal proteins are of interest to the development of vaccines or drug targets. Protein samples were derived from 13 fungal species, cultured in rich or in minimal media; these included clinical isolates ofAspergillus,Candida,Mucor,Cryptococcus, andCoccidioidesspecies. Proteomes were analyzed by quantitative MSE(Mass Spectrometry-Elevated Collision Energy). Several thousand proteins were identified and quantified in total across all fractions and culture conditions. The 42 most abundant proteins identified in fungal cell walls or supernatants shared no to very little homology with human proteins. In contrast, all but five of the 50 most abundant cytosolic proteins had human homologs with sequence identity averaging 59%. Proteomic comparisons of the secreted or surface localized fungal proteins highlighted conserved homologs of theAspergillus fumigatusproteins 1,3-β-glucanosyltransferases (Bgt1, Gel1-4), Crf1, Ecm33, EglC, and others. The fact that Crf1 and Gel1 were previously shown to be promising vaccine candidates, underlines the value of the proteomics data presented here.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Immunology, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Duarte, CA 91010, USA.
authors.forename: Jackson
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Champer
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA 91010, USA.
authors.forename: James I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.affiliation: California Institute for Medical Research, San Jose, CA 95128, USA; Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
authors.forename: Karl V
authors.initials: KV
authors.lastname: Clemons
authors.affiliation: California Institute for Medical Research, San Jose, CA 95128, USA; Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Immunology, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Duarte, CA 91010, USA.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kalkum
keywords: Aspergillus; Candida; fungal pathogens; proteomics; vaccine candidates