Zinc Limitation Induces a Hyper-Adherent Goliath Phenotype in Candida albicans

Dhara Malavia, Laura E Lehtovirta-Morley, Omran Alamir, Elisabeth Weiß, Neil A R Gow, Bernhard Hube, Duncan Wilson* (Corresponding Author)

*Corresponding author for this work

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38 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Pathogenic microorganisms often face acute micronutrient limitation during infection due to the action of host-mediated nutritional immunity. The human fungal pathogen Candida albicans is polymorphic and its morphological plasticity is one of its most widely recognized pathogenicity attributes. Here we investigated the effect of zinc, iron, manganese, and copper limitation on C. albicans morphology. Restriction of zinc specifically resulted in the formation of enlarged, spherical yeasts, a phenotype which we term Goliath cells. This cellular response to zinc restriction was conserved in C. albicans, C. dubliniensis and C. tropicalis, but not in C. parapsilosis, C. lusitaniae or Debaryomyces hansenii, suggesting that it may have emerged in the last common ancestor of these related pathogenic species. Cell wall analysis revealed proportionally more chitin exposure on the Goliath cell surface. Importantly, these cells were hyper-adherent, suggesting a possible role in pathogenicity. Interestingly, the zincophore-encoding gene PRA1 was expressed by Goliath cells in zinc limited media and lack of Pra1 inhibited both cellular enlargement and adhesion. Goliath cells represent a further layer of Candida phenotypic plasticity.
Original languageEnglish
Article number2238
JournalFrontiers in Microbiology
Volume8
Early online date31 Oct 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Nov 2017

Bibliographical note

DW is supported by a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship jointly funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society (102549/Z/13/Z), a Wellcome Trust ISSF seed corn grant (RG12723 14), and the Medical Research Council and University of Aberdeen (MR/N006364/1). DW and DM received support from a Wellcome Trust Strategic Award for Medical Mycology and Fungal Immunology (097377/Z/11/Z). NG is supported by a Wellcome Trust Investigator Award (101873). BH is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG SFB/TR 124 FungiNet, project C1. LL-M is supported by a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship (DH150187). OA is supported by the Public Authority of Applied Education and Training, Kuwait.

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2017.02238/full#supplementary-material

Keywords

  • candida albicans
  • fungal pathogen
  • morphology
  • morphogenesis
  • nutritional immunity
  • micronutrients
  • zinc
  • adhesion

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