Supinya Pongsunk. Functional analysis of a Penicillium Marneffei gene involved in the fungal development . Doctoral Degree(Microbiology). Mahidol University. : Mahidol University, 2004.
Functional analysis of a Penicillium Marneffei gene involved in the fungal development
Abstract:
Since the explosive epidemic of AIDS, there ha s been a rapid rise in the
number of case reports of penicilliosis marneffei, a disease caused by a dimorphic
fungus Penicillium marneffei. Several studies have shown that yeast-hyphal transitions
are involved in pathogenesis of dimorphic pathogenic fungi. Therefore, it is of interest
to investigate genes involved in the control of dimorphism.
Morphologically, P. marneffei yeast cells produced in vitro do not resemble
yeast cells found in clinical specimens. In this study, it was found that 1% peptone is
an essential supplement and is responsible for transition induction into yeasts. At
37°C, the inoculated conidia seemed to converted directly to yeast cells, the cycle that
differed from those previous ly described for in vitro transition. Thus, this specific
culture condition would be advantageous to obtain pure P. marneffei yeasts for future
research on their respective roles such as virulence, invasiveness, and pathogenesis.
Although several control mechanisms of fungal cell differentiation and
development have been reported, little is known about transcriptional control of P.
marneffei. As regulation at transcription level has been shown to be important in
developmental responses of P. marneffei and TATA-binding protein (TBP) is a key
general transcription initiation factor in eukaryotes, P. marneffei tbpA gene was
isolated from P. marneffei strain RT-72. The deduced amino acids sequence of the
tbpA cDNA sequence was predicted to encode a 255-amino acid polypeptide with a
conserved C-terminal domain in comparison to TBP of other known fungi.
Subsequently, a TBP overexpressing strain was generated by placing tbpA under the
control of the xylP promoter of pXylNom (xylPp::tbpA). The construct was introduced
into P. marneffei wild-type strain SPM4. This TBP overexpressing strain was then
used to produce a P. marneffei tbpA-deleted strain via homologous recombination. The
tbpA-deleted strain did not grow at 25°C but displayed a reduced growth rate at 37°C.
The results suggested that TBP is necessary and essential for P. marneffei cell survival
at 25°C and plays a less significant role on the control of fungal growth at 37°C.
Inducible expression of ectopic copies of xylPp::tbpA by addition of 0.1% xylose
could complement the growth defect of the tbpA-deleted strain at 25°C. However,
significantly lower conidia l production was observed in the deletion strain as compare
to the wild-type reflecting that the ectopic TBP could not complement the defect in
conidia l formation. Taken together, the results suggest that P. marneffei TBP is
involved in the formation of conidia despite its role in transcription initiation.
Interestingly, phenotypic examination of growth of the tbpA overexpressing strains
revealed that high TBP expression inhibits the fungal growth at conidial germination.