Aspergillus fumigatus calcium-responsive transcription factors regulate cell wall architecture promoting stress tolerance, virulence and caspofungin resistance.

Aspergillus fumigatus causes invasive aspergillosis, the most common life-threatening fungal disease of immuno-compromised humans. The treatment of disseminated infections with antifungal drugs, including echinocandin cell wall biosynthesis inhibitors, is increasingly challenging due to the rise of...

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Main Authors: Patrícia Alves de Castro, Ana Cristina Colabardini, Adriana Oliveira Manfiolli, Jéssica Chiaratto, Lilian Pereira Silva, Eliciane Cevolani Mattos, Giuseppe Palmisano, Fausto Almeida, Gabriela Felix Persinoti, Laure Nicolas Annick Ries, Laura Mellado, Marina Campos Rocha, Michael Bromley, Roberto Nascimento Silva, Gabriel Scalini de Souza, Flávio Vieira Loures, Iran Malavazi, Neil Andrew Brown, Gustavo H Goldman
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2019-12-01
Series:PLoS Genetics
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1008551&type=printable
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author Patrícia Alves de Castro
Ana Cristina Colabardini
Adriana Oliveira Manfiolli
Jéssica Chiaratto
Lilian Pereira Silva
Eliciane Cevolani Mattos
Giuseppe Palmisano
Fausto Almeida
Gabriela Felix Persinoti
Laure Nicolas Annick Ries
Laura Mellado
Marina Campos Rocha
Michael Bromley
Roberto Nascimento Silva
Gabriel Scalini de Souza
Flávio Vieira Loures
Iran Malavazi
Neil Andrew Brown
Gustavo H Goldman
author_facet Patrícia Alves de Castro
Ana Cristina Colabardini
Adriana Oliveira Manfiolli
Jéssica Chiaratto
Lilian Pereira Silva
Eliciane Cevolani Mattos
Giuseppe Palmisano
Fausto Almeida
Gabriela Felix Persinoti
Laure Nicolas Annick Ries
Laura Mellado
Marina Campos Rocha
Michael Bromley
Roberto Nascimento Silva
Gabriel Scalini de Souza
Flávio Vieira Loures
Iran Malavazi
Neil Andrew Brown
Gustavo H Goldman
author_sort Patrícia Alves de Castro
collection DOAJ
description Aspergillus fumigatus causes invasive aspergillosis, the most common life-threatening fungal disease of immuno-compromised humans. The treatment of disseminated infections with antifungal drugs, including echinocandin cell wall biosynthesis inhibitors, is increasingly challenging due to the rise of drug-resistant pathogens. The fungal calcium responsive calcineurin-CrzA pathway influences cell morphology, cell wall composition, virulence, and echinocandin resistance. A screen of 395 A. fumigatus transcription factor mutants identified nine transcription factors important to calcium stress tolerance, including CrzA and ZipD. Here, comparative transcriptomics revealed CrzA and ZipD regulated the expression of shared and unique gene networks, suggesting they participate in both converged and distinct stress response mechanisms. CrzA and ZipD additively promoted calcium stress tolerance. However, ZipD also regulated cell wall organization, osmotic stress tolerance and echinocandin resistance. The absence of ZipD in A. fumigatus caused a significant virulence reduction in immunodeficient and immunocompetent mice. The ΔzipD mutant displayed altered cell wall organization and composition, while being more susceptible to macrophage killing and eliciting an increased pro-inflammatory cytokine response. A higher number of neutrophils, macrophages and activated macrophages were found in ΔzipD infected mice lungs. Collectively, this shows that ZipD-mediated regulation of the fungal cell wall contributes to the evasion of pro-inflammatory responses and tolerance of echinocandin antifungals, and in turn promoting virulence and complicating treatment options.
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spelling doaj-art-1c17b4bbc41e485db85d83d1abc3b3f32025-08-20T02:54:53ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS Genetics1553-73901553-74042019-12-011512e100855110.1371/journal.pgen.1008551Aspergillus fumigatus calcium-responsive transcription factors regulate cell wall architecture promoting stress tolerance, virulence and caspofungin resistance.Patrícia Alves de CastroAna Cristina ColabardiniAdriana Oliveira ManfiolliJéssica ChiarattoLilian Pereira SilvaEliciane Cevolani MattosGiuseppe PalmisanoFausto AlmeidaGabriela Felix PersinotiLaure Nicolas Annick RiesLaura MelladoMarina Campos RochaMichael BromleyRoberto Nascimento SilvaGabriel Scalini de SouzaFlávio Vieira LouresIran MalavaziNeil Andrew BrownGustavo H GoldmanAspergillus fumigatus causes invasive aspergillosis, the most common life-threatening fungal disease of immuno-compromised humans. The treatment of disseminated infections with antifungal drugs, including echinocandin cell wall biosynthesis inhibitors, is increasingly challenging due to the rise of drug-resistant pathogens. The fungal calcium responsive calcineurin-CrzA pathway influences cell morphology, cell wall composition, virulence, and echinocandin resistance. A screen of 395 A. fumigatus transcription factor mutants identified nine transcription factors important to calcium stress tolerance, including CrzA and ZipD. Here, comparative transcriptomics revealed CrzA and ZipD regulated the expression of shared and unique gene networks, suggesting they participate in both converged and distinct stress response mechanisms. CrzA and ZipD additively promoted calcium stress tolerance. However, ZipD also regulated cell wall organization, osmotic stress tolerance and echinocandin resistance. The absence of ZipD in A. fumigatus caused a significant virulence reduction in immunodeficient and immunocompetent mice. The ΔzipD mutant displayed altered cell wall organization and composition, while being more susceptible to macrophage killing and eliciting an increased pro-inflammatory cytokine response. A higher number of neutrophils, macrophages and activated macrophages were found in ΔzipD infected mice lungs. Collectively, this shows that ZipD-mediated regulation of the fungal cell wall contributes to the evasion of pro-inflammatory responses and tolerance of echinocandin antifungals, and in turn promoting virulence and complicating treatment options.https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1008551&type=printable
spellingShingle Patrícia Alves de Castro
Ana Cristina Colabardini
Adriana Oliveira Manfiolli
Jéssica Chiaratto
Lilian Pereira Silva
Eliciane Cevolani Mattos
Giuseppe Palmisano
Fausto Almeida
Gabriela Felix Persinoti
Laure Nicolas Annick Ries
Laura Mellado
Marina Campos Rocha
Michael Bromley
Roberto Nascimento Silva
Gabriel Scalini de Souza
Flávio Vieira Loures
Iran Malavazi
Neil Andrew Brown
Gustavo H Goldman
Aspergillus fumigatus calcium-responsive transcription factors regulate cell wall architecture promoting stress tolerance, virulence and caspofungin resistance.
PLoS Genetics
title Aspergillus fumigatus calcium-responsive transcription factors regulate cell wall architecture promoting stress tolerance, virulence and caspofungin resistance.
title_full Aspergillus fumigatus calcium-responsive transcription factors regulate cell wall architecture promoting stress tolerance, virulence and caspofungin resistance.
title_fullStr Aspergillus fumigatus calcium-responsive transcription factors regulate cell wall architecture promoting stress tolerance, virulence and caspofungin resistance.
title_full_unstemmed Aspergillus fumigatus calcium-responsive transcription factors regulate cell wall architecture promoting stress tolerance, virulence and caspofungin resistance.
title_short Aspergillus fumigatus calcium-responsive transcription factors regulate cell wall architecture promoting stress tolerance, virulence and caspofungin resistance.
title_sort aspergillus fumigatus calcium responsive transcription factors regulate cell wall architecture promoting stress tolerance virulence and caspofungin resistance
url https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1008551&type=printable
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