Morphological and physiological changes induced by contact-dependent interaction between Candida albicans and Fusobacterium nucleatum.
Candida albicans and Fusobacterium nucleatum are well-studied oral commensal microbes with pathogenic potential that are involved in various oral polymicrobial infectious diseases. Recently, we demonstrated that F. nucleatum ATCC 23726 coaggregates with C. albicans SN152, a process mainly mediated by fusobacterial membrane protein RadD and Candida cell wall protein Flo9. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential biological impact of this inter-kingdom interaction. We found that F. nucleatum ATCC 23726 inhibits growth and hyphal morphogenesis of C. albicans SN152 in a contact-dependent manner. Further analysis revealed that the inhibition of Candida hyphal morphogenesis is mediated via RadD and Flo9 protein pair. Using a murine macrophage cell line, we showed that the F. nucleatum-induced inhibition of Candida hyphal morphogenesis promotes C. albicans survival and negatively impacts the macrophage-killing capability of C. albicans. Furthermore, the yeast form of C. albicans repressed F. nucleatum-induced MCP-1 and TNFα production in macrophages. Our study suggests that the interaction between C. albicans and F. nucleatum leads to a mutual attenuation of virulence, which may function to promote a long-term commensal lifestyle within the oral cavity. This finding has significant implications for our understanding of inter-kingdom interaction and may impact clinical treatment strategies.
School of Dentistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Batbileg
B
Bor
School of Dentistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Lujia
L
Cen
School of Dentistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Melissa
M
Agnello
School of Dentistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.|C3 Jian, Inc. Marina del Rey, CA 90292, USA.
Wenyuan
W
Shi
School of Dentistry, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Xuesong
X
He
D000818:Animals; D002176:Candida albicans / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D002449:Cell Aggregation / Q000502:physiology*; D002460:Cell Line; D018932:Chemokine CCL2 / Q000096:biosynthesis; D018920:Coculture Techniques; D016967:Fusobacterium nucleatum / Q000378:metabolism*; D025301:Hyphae / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics; D008264:Macrophages / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D056265:Microbial Interactions / Q000502:physiology*; D064307:Microbiota / Q000502:physiology; D009055:Mouth / Q000382:microbiology; D013559:Symbiosis / Q000502:physiology; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000096:biosynthesis
C491768:Ccl2 protein, mouse; D018932:Chemokine CCL2; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha