title: Extracellular calcium triggers unique transcriptional programs and modulates staurosporine-induced cell death inNeurospora crassa.
abstract: Alterations in the intracellular levels of calcium are a common response to cell death stimuli in animals and fungi and, particularly, in theNeurospora crassaresponse to staurosporine. We highlight the importance of the extracellular availability of Ca2+for this response. Limitation of the ion in the culture medium further sensitizes cells to the drug and results in increased accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Conversely, an approximately 30-fold excess of external Ca2+leads to increased drug tolerance and lower ROS generation. In line with this, distinct staurosporine-induced cytosolic Ca2+signaling profiles were observed in the absence or presence of excessive external Ca2+. High-throughput RNA sequencing revealed that different concentrations of extracellular Ca2+define distinct transcriptional programs. Our transcriptional profiling also pointed to two putative novel Ca2+-binding proteins, encoded by the NCU08524 and NCU06607 genes, and provides a reference dataset for future investigations on the role of Ca2+in fungal biology.
authors.affiliation: ICBAS-Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas de Abel Salazar, Universidade do Porto, Rua de Jorge Viterbo Ferreira 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal. ; IBMC-Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular - Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 823, 4150-180 Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
authors.affiliation: IBMC-Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular - Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 823, 4150-180 Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: João
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Monteiro
authors.affiliation: IBMC-Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular - Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 823, 4150-180 Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lucchi
authors.affiliation: Plant and Microbial Biology Department, The University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Kowbel
authors.affiliation: ICBAS-Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas de Abel Salazar, Universidade do Porto, Rua de Jorge Viterbo Ferreira 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal. ; UMIB-Unidade Multidisciplinar de Investigação Biomédica, Universidade do Porto, Rua de Jorge Viterbo Ferreira 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Cordeiro
authors.affiliation: ICBAS-Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas de Abel Salazar, Universidade do Porto, Rua de Jorge Viterbo Ferreira 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal. ; UMIB-Unidade Multidisciplinar de Investigação Biomédica, Universidade do Porto, Rua de Jorge Viterbo Ferreira 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Paulo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Correia-de-Sá
authors.affiliation: Institute of Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 7ZB, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Daniel J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Rigden
authors.affiliation: Plant and Microbial Biology Department, The University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
authors.forename: N L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Glass
authors.affiliation: ICBAS-Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas de Abel Salazar, Universidade do Porto, Rua de Jorge Viterbo Ferreira 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal. ; IBMC-Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular - Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 823, 4150-180 Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Arnaldo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Videira
keywords: Ca2+-binding motif; Neurospora crassa; ROS; calcium; cell death