25 results on '"Irene Castaño"'
Search Results
2. Candida glabrata Hst1-Rfm1-Sum1 complex evolved to control virulence-related genes
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Norma Vázquez-Franco, Guadalupe Gutiérrez-Escobedo, Alejandro Juárez-Reyes, Emmanuel Orta-Zavalza, Irene Castaño, and Alejandro De Las Peñas
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Fungal Proteins ,Antifungal Agents ,Virulence ,Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal ,Genetics ,Humans ,Candida glabrata ,Fluconazole ,Microbiology ,Phylogeny ,Xenobiotics - Abstract
C. glabrata is an opportunistic fungal pathogen and the second most common cause of opportunistic fungal infections in humans, that has evolved virulence factors to become a successful pathogen: strong resistance to oxidative stress, capable to adhere and form biofilms in human epithelial cells as well as to abiotic surfaces and high resistance to xenobiotics. Hst1 (a NAD
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- 2022
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3. Molecular characterization of the silencing complex SIR in Candida glabrata hyperadherent clinical isolates
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Irene Castaño, José Cruz-Mora, Eunice López-Fuentes, Guadalupe Gutiérrez-Escobedo, Osney Leiva-Peláez, and Alejandro De Las Peñas
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0301 basic medicine ,Candida glabrata ,Saccharomyces cerevisiae ,Biology ,Microbiology ,Fungal Proteins ,03 medical and health sciences ,Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal ,Lectins ,Genetics ,RNA-Induced Silencing Complex ,Gene silencing ,Gene Silencing ,Allele ,Gene ,Silent Information Regulator Proteins, Saccharomyces cerevisiae ,Reporter gene ,Candidiasis ,SIR proteins ,Telomere ,biology.organism_classification ,Phenotype ,DNA-Binding Proteins ,Bacterial adhesin ,030104 developmental biology - Abstract
An important virulence factor for the fungal pathogen Candida glabrata is the ability to adhere to the host cells, which is mediated by the expression of adhesins. Epa1 is responsible for ∼95% of the in vitro adherence to epithelial cells and is the founding member of the Epa family of adhesins. The majority of EPA genes are localized close to different telomeres, which causes transcriptional repression due to subtelomeric silencing. In C. glabrata there are three Sir proteins (Sir2, Sir3 and Sir4) that are essential for subtelomeric silencing. Among a collection of 79 clinical isolates, some display a hyperadherent phenotype to epithelial cells compared to our standard laboratory strain, BG14. These isolates also express several subtelomeric EPA genes simultaneously. We cloned the SIR2, SIR3 and SIR4 genes from the hyperadherent isolates and from the BG14 and the sequenced strain CBS138 in a replicative vector to complement null mutants in each of these genes in the BG14 background. All the SIR2 and SIR4 alleles tested from selected hyper-adherent isolates were functional and efficient to silence a URA3 reporter gene inserted in a subtelomeric region. The SIR3 alleles from these isolates were also functional, except the allele from isolate MC2 (sir3-MC2), which was not functional to silence the reporter and did not complement the hyperadherent phenotype of the BG14 sir3Δ. Consistently, sir3-MC2 allele is recessive to the SIR3 allele from BG14. Sir3 and Sir4 alleles from the hyperadherent isolates contain several polymorphisms and two of them are present in all the hyperadherent isolates analyzed. Instead, the Sir3 and Sir4 alleles from the BG14 and another non-adherent isolate do not display these polymorphisms and are identical to each other. The particular combination of polymorphisms in sir3-MC2 and in SIR4-MC2 could explain in part the hyperadherent phenotype displayed by this isolate.
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- 2018
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4. Candida glabrata peroxiredoxins, Tsa1 and Tsa2, and sulfiredoxin, Srx1, protect against oxidative damage and are necessary for virulence
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Brenda Revuelta-Rodríguez, Irene Castaño, Alejandro De Las Peñas, Norma Vázquez-Franco, Oscar Hernández-Carreón, Brenda Morales-Rojano, and Guadalupe Gutiérrez-Escobedo
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Neutrophils ,Virulence ,Candida glabrata ,medicine.disease_cause ,Microbiology ,Fungal Proteins ,Oxidative damage ,03 medical and health sciences ,Genetics ,medicine ,Humans ,Oxidoreductases Acting on Sulfur Group Donors ,Transcription factor ,030304 developmental biology ,YAP1 ,0303 health sciences ,biology ,030306 microbiology ,Calcium-Binding Proteins ,Hydrogen Peroxide ,biology.organism_classification ,Oxidative Stress ,Sulfiredoxin ,Peroxidases ,Cytoplasm ,Oxidation-Reduction ,Oxidative stress - Abstract
Candida glabrata is an opportunistic fungal pathogen that can cause life-threatening infections in immunocompromised patients. To ensure a successful infection, C. glabrata has evolved a variety of strategies to avoid killing within the host. One of these strategies is the resistance to oxidative stress. Here we show that the sulfiredoxin Srx1 and the peroxiredoxins, Tsa1 and Tsa2, are implicated in the oxidative stress response (OSR) and required for virulence. We analyzed null mutations in SRX1, TSA1 and TSA2 and showed that TSA2 and SRX1 are required to respond to oxidative stress. While TSA1 expression is constitutive, SRX1 and TSA2 are induced in the presence of H2O2 in a process dependent on H2O2 concentration and on both transcription factors Yap1 and Skn7. Msn2 and Msn4 are not necessary for the regulation of SRX1, TSA1 and TSA2. Interestingly, TSA1 and TSA2, which are localized in the cytoplasm, are induced in the presence of neutrophils and required for survival in these phagocytic cells.
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- 2020
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5. Chromatin architecture and virulence-related gene expression in eukaryotic microbial pathogens
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Irene Castaño and Alejandro Juárez-Reyes
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Adaptation, Biological ,Biology ,Epigenesis, Genetic ,Histones ,03 medical and health sciences ,Heterochromatin ,Gene expression ,Genetics ,Transcriptional regulation ,Antigenic variation ,Gene family ,Animals ,Humans ,Epigenetics ,Homologous Recombination ,Gene ,030304 developmental biology ,Cell Nucleus ,0303 health sciences ,Virulence ,030302 biochemistry & molecular biology ,Chromosome ,Eukaryota ,Epistasis, Genetic ,General Medicine ,Biological Evolution ,Chromatin ,Cell biology ,Gene Expression Regulation ,Host-Pathogen Interactions ,Protein Processing, Post-Translational - Abstract
A fundamental question in biology is to understand how appropriate transcriptional regulation and dense packaging of the genetic material within the eukaryotic nucleus are achieved. The exquisite gene expression control and other metabolic processes of DNA require a highly complex, multilayered, three-dimensional architecture of the chromatin and its specific compartmentalization within the nucleus. Some of these architectural and sub-nuclear positioning mechanisms have been extensively co-opted by eukaryotic pathogens to keep fine expression control and expansion of virulence-related gene families in Plasmodium falciparum, Trypanosoma brucei and Candida glabrata. For example non-linear interactions between distant cis-acting regions and the formation of chromatin loops are required for appropriate regulation of the expression of virulence-related multi-gene families encoding cell surface proteins. These gene families are located near the chromosome ends and tethered to the nuclear periphery. Consequently, only one or very few genes of the family are expressed at a time. These genes are involved in antigenic variation in parasites and the generation of subpopulations of cells with diverse antigenic proteins at the surface in some pathogenic fungi, making them highly efficient pathogens.
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- 2018
6. The EPA2 adhesin encoding gene is responsive to oxidative stress in the opportunistic fungal pathogen Candida glabrata
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Carmen Y. Hernández-Carballo, Jorge Arreola-Gómez, Guadalupe Gutiérrez-Escobedo, Jacqueline Juárez-Cepeda, Emmanuel Orta-Zavalza, Gloria Patricia Pérez-Cornejo, Alejandro De Las Peñas, Israel Cañas-Villamar, and Irene Castaño
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Virulence ,Candida glabrata ,medicine.disease_cause ,Microbiology ,Fungal Proteins ,Mice ,Phagocytosis ,Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal ,Genetics ,medicine ,Animals ,Gene silencing ,Gene Silencing ,Gene ,YAP1 ,biology ,Candidiasis ,Hydrogen Peroxide ,General Medicine ,Telomere ,biology.organism_classification ,Chromatin ,Bacterial adhesin ,Oxidative Stress ,Liver ,Cell Adhesion Molecules ,Oxidative stress ,Transcription Factors - Abstract
Candida glabrata has emerged as an important opportunistic pathogen in both mucosal and bloodstream infections. C. glabrata contains 67 adhesin-like glycosylphosphatidylinositol-cell-wall proteins (GPI-CWPs), which are classified into seven groups and the largest is the Epa family. Epa proteins are very diverse and their expression is differentially regulated. Like many of the EPA genes, EPA2 is localized in a subtelomeric region where it is subject to chromatin-based transcriptional silencing and its role remains largely unexplored. In this study, we show that EPA2 gene is induced specifically in vitro in the presence of oxidative stress generated by H2O2. This induction is dependent on both Yap1 and Skn7, whereas Msn4 represses EPA2 expression. Interestingly, EPA2 is not induced during phagocytosis, but its expression can be identified in the liver in a murine model of systemic infection. Epa2 has no effect on the virulence of C. glabrata. The work presented herein provides a foundation for future studies to dissect the molecular mechanism(s) by which EPA2 of C. glabrata can be induced in the presence of oxidative stress in a region subject to subtelomeric silencing.
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- 2015
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7. Role of glutathione in the oxidative stress response in the fungal pathogen Candida glabrata
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Alejandro De Las Peñas, Emmanuel Orta-Zavalza, Irene Castaño, and Guadalupe Gutiérrez-Escobedo
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Glutamate-Cysteine Ligase ,Mutant ,Glutamic Acid ,Candida glabrata ,Saccharomyces cerevisiae ,Reductase ,medicine.disease_cause ,Glutathione Synthase ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Thioredoxins ,Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal ,Genetics ,medicine ,Point Mutation ,biology ,General Medicine ,Glutathione ,biology.organism_classification ,Glutathione synthase ,Glutathione synthetase ,Oxidative Stress ,chemistry ,Biochemistry ,biology.protein ,Thioredoxin ,Oxidation-Reduction ,Oxidative stress - Abstract
Candida glabrata, an opportunistic fungal pathogen, accounts for 18-26 % of all Candida systemic infections in the US. C. glabrata has a robust oxidative stress response (OSR) and in this work we characterized the role of glutathione (GSH), an essential tripeptide-like thiol-containing molecule required to keep the redox homeostasis and in the detoxification of metal ions. GSH is synthesized from glutamate, cysteine, and glycine by the sequential action of Gsh1 (γ-glutamyl-cysteine synthetase) and Gsh2 (glutathione synthetase) enzymes. We first screened for suppressor mutations that would allow growth in the absence of GSH1 (gsh1∆ background) and found a single point mutation in PRO2 (pro2-4), a gene that encodes a γ-glutamyl phosphate reductase and catalyzes the second step in the biosynthesis of proline. We demonstrate that GSH is important in the OSR since the gsh1∆ pro2-4 and gsh2∆ mutant strains are more sensitive to oxidative stress generated by H2O2 and menadione. GSH is also required for Cadmium tolerance. In the absence of Gsh1 and Gsh2, cells show decreased viability in stationary phase. Furthermore, C. glabrata does not contain Saccharomyces cerevisiae high affinity GSH transporter ortholog, ScOpt1/Hgt1, however, our genetic and biochemical experiments show that the gsh1∆ pro2-4 and gsh2∆ mutant strains are able to incorporate GSH from the medium. Finally, GSH and thioredoxin, which is a second redox system in the cell, are not essential for the catalase-independent adaptation response to H2O2.
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- 2013
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8. Subtelomeric Silencing of the MTL3 Locus of Candida glabrata Requires yKu70, yKu80, and Rif1 Proteins
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Candy Y. Ramírez-Zavaleta, Irene Castaño, Alejandro De Las Peñas, and Griselda E. Salas-Delgado
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Genetics ,Mating type ,Fungal protein ,biology ,Candida glabrata ,Telomere-Binding Proteins ,Saccharomyces cerevisiae ,Chromosome ,Locus (genetics) ,Articles ,General Medicine ,Telomere ,Genes, Mating Type, Fungal ,biology.organism_classification ,Microbiology ,DNA-Binding Proteins ,Fungal Proteins ,Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal ,URA3 ,Gene Silencing ,Molecular Biology ,Gene - Abstract
Candida glabrata is a haploid opportunistic fungal pathogen that is phylogenetically related to Saccharomyces cerevisiae . Even though C. glabrata has no known sexual cycle, it contains, like S. cerevisiae , three mating type-like loci ( MTL ) called MTL1 , MTL2 , and MTL3 , as well as most of the genes required for mating, meiosis, and sporulation. MTL1 is localized at an internal position on chromosome B and is thought to be the locus corresponding to the MAT locus in S. cerevisiae . MTL2 and MTL3 are localized close to two telomeres on different chromosomes (29.4 kb from Chr E-L and 10.5 kb from Chr B-L, respectively). By using URA3 reporter gene insertions at the three MTL loci, we found that in contrast to the case for S. cerevisiae , only MTL3 is subject to transcriptional silencing while MTL2 is transcriptionally active, and this is in agreement with previously reported data. We found that the silencing of MTL3 is nucleated primarily at the left telomere of chromosome B and spreads over 12 kb to MTL3 , rather than nucleating at flanking, closely positioned cis -acting silencers, like those flanking HMR and HML of S. cerevisiae . Interestingly, the silencing of MTL3 absolutely requires the yKu70, yKu80, and Rif1 proteins, in sharp contrast to the silencing of the HM loci of S. cerevisiae . In addition, we found that several cell type-specific genes are expressed in C. glabrata regardless of the presence, or even absence, of mating type information at any of the MTL loci.
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- 2010
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9. Genotyping of the MTL loci and susceptibility to two antifungal agents of Candida glabrata clinical isolates
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Candy Y. Ramírez-Zavaleta, Miriam Bobadilla-del Valle, Irene Castaño, María Teresa Lavaniegos-Sobrino, Alejandro De Las Peñas, José Sifuentes-Osornio, Andrea Rangel-Cordero, and Alfredo Ponce de León
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Microbiology (medical) ,Mating type ,Antifungal Agents ,lcsh:Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine ,Genotype ,lcsh:RC955-962 ,Antifungal drug ,lcsh:QR1-502 ,Flucytosine ,Locus (genetics) ,Candida glabrata ,Microbial Sensitivity Tests ,Drug resistance ,Biology ,lcsh:Microbiology ,Microbiology ,clinical isolate ,fluconazole ,medicine ,Humans ,5-fluorocytosine ,Mexico ,Genotyping ,Genetics ,mating type loci ,Genes, Mating Type, Fungal ,biology.organism_classification ,MTL ,Fluconazole ,medicine.drug - Abstract
The opportunistic fungal pathogen Candida glabrata is the second most common isolate from bloodstream infections worldwide and is naturally less susceptible to the antifungal drug fluconazole than other Candida species. C. glabrata is a haploid yeast that contains three mating-type like loci (MTL), although no sexual cycle has been described. Strains containing both types of mating information at the MTL1 locus are found in clinical isolates, but it is thought that strains containing type a information are more common. Here we investigated if a particular combination of mating type information at each MTLlocus is more prevalent in clinical isolates from hospitalized patients in Mexico and if there is a correlation between mating information and resistance to fluconazole and 5-fluorocytosine. We found that while both types of information at MTL1 are equally represented in a collection of 64 clinical isolates, the vast majority of isolates contain a-type information at MTL2 and α-type at MTL3. We also found no correlation of the particular combination of mating type information at the three MTL loci and resistance to fluconazole.
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- 2009
10. Expression vectors for C-terminal fusions with fluorescent proteins and epitope tags in Candida glabrata
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Irene Castaño, Guadalupe Gutiérrez-Escobedo, Emmanuel Orta-Zavalza, Alejandro De Las Peñas, Patricia Yáñez-Carrillo, and Araceli Patrón-Soberano
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Genetics ,Expression vector ,Candida glabrata ,Recombinant Fusion Proteins ,Genetic Vectors ,Locus (genetics) ,Biology ,biology.organism_classification ,Microbiology ,Protein–protein interaction ,Protein Structure, Tertiary ,Epitopes ,Luminescent Proteins ,Plasmid ,Genetic Techniques ,mCherry ,Promoter Regions, Genetic ,Gene ,3' Untranslated Regions ,Fluorescent tag - Abstract
Candida glabrata is a haploid yeast considered the second most common of the Candida species found in nosocomial infections, accounting for approximately 18% of candidemias worldwide. Even though molecular biology methods are easily adapted to study this organism, there are not enough vectors that will allow probing the transcriptional and translational activity of any gene of interest in C. glabrata. In this work we have generated a set of expression vectors to systematically tag any gene of interest at the carboxy-terminus with three different fluorophores (CFP, YFP and mCherry) or three epitopes (HA, FLAG or cMyc) independently. This system offers the possibility to generate translational fusions in three versions: under the gene’s own promoter integrated in its native locus in genome, on a replicative plasmid under its own promoter, or on a replicative plasmid under a strong promoter to overexpress the fusions. The expression of these translational fusions will allow determining the transcriptional and translational activity of the gene of interest as well as the intracellular localization of the protein. We have tested these expression vectors with two biosynthetic genes, HIS3 and TRP1. We detected fluorescence under the microscope and we were able to immunodetect the fusions using the three different versions of the system. These vectors permit coexpression of several different fusions simultaneously in the same cell, which will allow determining protein–protein and protein–DNA interactions. This set of vectors adds a new toolbox to study expression and protein interactions in the fungal pathogen C. glabrata.
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- 2015
11. Telomere length control and transcriptional regulation of subtelomeric adhesins in Candida glabrata
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Irene Castaño, Bernard Dujon, Margaret L. Zupancic, Shih Jung Pan, Brendan P. Cormack, and Christophe Hennequin
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Genetics ,Regulation of gene expression ,Candida glabrata ,Fungal genetics ,biochemical phenomena, metabolism, and nutrition ,Biology ,bacterial infections and mycoses ,biology.organism_classification ,Microbiology ,Bacterial adhesin ,Transcriptional regulation ,Gene family ,Molecular Biology ,Gene ,Derepression - Abstract
The pathogenic yeast Candida glabrata is able to bind in vitro to human epithelial cells. This interaction depends on expression of the adhesin Epa1p. The genome contains a number of EPA1 paralogues which localize to the subtelomeric regions of the C. glabrata. We have identified three hyperadherent mutants of C. glabrata. The first has an insertion adjacent to EPA7, an EPA1-related adhesin. The others disrupt the SIR3 and RIF1 genes of C. glabrata. We show that SIR3 and RIF1 are required for subtelomeric silencing in C. glabrata and that RIF1 regulates telomere length in C. glabrata. We show that the hyperadherent phenotype of the sir3Delta and rif1Delta deletion strains depends primarily on derepression of two novel members of the EPA gene family -EPA6 and EPA7. The sir3Delta and rif1Delta mutants show increased colonization of the kidney in a murine model of disseminated infection and this hypercolonization depends, at least in part, on derepression of EPA6 and EPA7. The analysis here is the first evidence that multiple EPA genes encode adhesins and demonstrates that transcription of at least two of these adhesins is regulated by subtelomeric silencing.
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- 2004
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12. Virulence-related surface glycoproteins in the yeast pathogen Candida glabrata are encoded in subtelomeric clusters and subject to RAP1- and SIR-dependent transcriptional silencing
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Robert Cregg, Brendan P. Cormack, Alejandro De Las Peñas, Shih Jung Pan, Jonathan K. Alder, and Irene Castaño
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Genetics ,Transcription, Genetic ,Virulence ,Candida glabrata ,biology ,Saccharomyces cerevisiae ,Subtelomere ,biology.organism_classification ,Research Papers ,Chromatin ,Fungal Proteins ,Lectins ,Multigene Family ,Gene family ,Gene silencing ,Gene Silencing ,Gene ,Transcription Factors ,Developmental Biology - Abstract
Candida glabrata is an important opportunistic pathogen causing both mucosal and bloodstream infections. C. glabrata is able to adhere avidly to mammalian cells, an interaction that depends on the Epa1p lectin. EPA1 is shown here to be a member of a larger family of highly related genes encoded in subtelomeric clusters. Subtelomeric clustering of large families of surface glycoprotein-encoding genes is a hallmark of several pathogens, including Plasmodium, Trypanosoma, and Pneumocystis. In these other pathogens, a single surface glycoprotein is expressed, whereas other genes in the family are transcriptionally silent. Similarly, whereas EPA1 is expressed in vitro, EPA2-5 are transcriptionally repressed. This repression is shown to be due to regional silencing of the subtelomeric loci. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, subtelomeric silencing is initiated by Rap1p binding to the telomeric repeats and subsequent recruitment of the Sir complex by protein-protein interaction. We demonstrate here that silencing of the subtelomeric EPA loci also depends on functional Sir3p and Rap1p. This identification and analysis of the EPA gene family provides a compelling example in an ascomycete of chromatin-based silencing of natural subtelomeric genes and provides for the first time in a pathogen, molecular insight into the transcriptional silencing of large subtelomeric gene families.
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- 2003
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13. Function and Regulation of Adhesin Gene Families inSaccharomyces cerevisiae, Candida albicans, andCandida glabrata
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Irene Castaño, Alejandro De Las Peñas, and Brendan P. Cormack
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Regulation of gene expression ,Genetics ,Candida glabrata ,Saccharomyces cerevisiae ,Gene silencing ,Gene family ,Biology ,biology.organism_classification ,Candida albicans ,Gene ,Fungal antigen - Abstract
In fungi, the cell wall plays a primary role contributing to the structural integrity of the cell; in addition to this structural role, the cell wall is, by definition, the interface between the yeast and the environment. This chapter examines the overlapping and divergent function and regulation of some surface glycoprotein gene families in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and its pathogenic cousins Candida glabrata and Candida albicans. S. cerevisiae, C. albicans, and C. glabrata encode a variety of glycosylphosphatidylinositol-linked cell wall proteins (GPI-CWPs) that play accessory roles, functioning primarily as adhesins, facilitating yeast-yeast interactions or yeast adherence to a variety of surfaces. Analysis of adhesin gene regulation in S. cerevisiae and in Candida species has revealed significant overlap in the signals that induce transcription of these gene families as well as the mechanistic basis for that regulation. Analysis of FLO gene transcription reveals unexpected complexity in chromatin regulation in yeast. While the epigenetic regulation of FLO10 and FLO11 expression appears similar and some key regulators (Sfl1) are shared, the requirement for chromatinmodifying proteins which underlie the silencing mechanism is quite different—Hda1 in the case of FLO11 and Hst1-Hst2 and Sir3 in the case of FLO10. This complexity probably foreshadows similar complexity in the regulation of other fungal adhesin families.
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- 2014
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14. Candida glabrata prevents flow‐dependent cardiac effects through lectinic interaction with coronary endothelial luminal membrane receptors (696.8)
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Irene Castaño, David Torres-Tirado, Rafael Rubio, Candy Y. Ramírez-Zavaleta, Alejandro De Las Peñas, and Maureen T. Knabb
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Candida glabrata ,biology ,Chemistry ,Genetics ,Receptor ,Luminal membrane ,biology.organism_classification ,Molecular Biology ,Biochemistry ,Biotechnology ,Cell biology - Published
- 2014
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15. The mating type-like loci of Candida glabrata
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Karina Robledo-Márquez, Alejandro De Las Peñas, Irene Castaño, Candy Y. Ramírez-Zavaleta, and Patricia Yáñez-Carrillo
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Genetics ,Cell type ,Mating type ,Candida glabrata ,biology ,Transcription, Genetic ,Reproduction ,Saccharomyces cerevisiae ,Telomere ,biology.organism_classification ,Genes, Mating Type, Fungal ,Microbiology ,Genome ,Sexual reproduction ,Fungal Proteins ,Infectious Diseases ,Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal ,Gene Silencing ,Mating ,Chromosomes, Fungal ,Gene - Abstract
Candida glabrata, a haploid and opportunistic fungal pathogen that has not known sexual cycle, has conserved the majority of the genes required for mating and cell type identity. The C. glabrata genome contains three mating-type-like loci called MTL1, MTL2 and MTL3. The three loci encode putative transcription factors, a1, α1 and α2 that regulate cell type identity and sexual reproduction in other fungi like the closely related Saccharomyces cerevisiae. MTL1 can contain either a or α information. MTL2, which contains a information and MTL3 with α information, are relatively close to two telomeres. MTL1 and MTL2 are transcriptionally active, while MTL3 is subject to an incomplete silencing nucleated at the telomere that depends on the silencing proteins Sir2, Sir3, Sir4, yKu70/80, Rif1, Rap1 and Sum1. C. glabrata does not seem to maintain cell type identity, as cell type-specific genes are expressed regardless of the type (or even absence) of mating information. These data highlight important differences in the control of mating and cell type identity between the non-pathogenic yeast S. cerevisiae and C. glabrata, which might explain the absence of a sexual cycle in C. glabrata. The fact that C. glabrata has conserved the vast majority of the genes involved in mating might suggest that some of these genes perhaps have been rewired to control other processes important for the survival inside the host as a commensal or as a human pathogen. This manuscript is part of the series of works presented at the "V International Workshop: Molecular genetic approaches to the study of human pathogenic fungi" (Oaxaca, Mexico, 2012).
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- 2013
16. Candida glabrataencodes a longer variant of the mating type (MAT) alpha2 gene in the mating type-likeMTL3locus, which can form homodimers
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Irene Castaño, Yamile Vidal-Aguiar, Guadalupe Gutiérrez-Escobedo, Karina Robledo-Márquez, Alejandro De Las Peñas, Emmanuel Orta-Zavalza, Marcela Briones-Martin-del-Campo, and Patricia Yáñez-Carrillo
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0301 basic medicine ,Genetics ,Mating type ,Candida glabrata ,Saccharomyces cerevisiae ,Locus (genetics) ,General Medicine ,Biology ,Genes, Mating Type, Fungal ,biology.organism_classification ,Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology ,Microbiology ,Phenotype ,Fungal Proteins ,03 medical and health sciences ,Bimolecular fluorescence complementation ,030104 developmental biology ,Genetic Loci ,Protein Multimerization ,Ploidy ,Gene - Abstract
The fungal pathogen Candida glabrata is a haploid asexual yeast. Candida glabrata contains orthologs of the genes that control mating and cell-type identity in other fungi, which encode putative transcription factors localized in the MAT locus in Saccharomyces cerevisiae or MTL in other fungi. Candida glabrata contains three copies of the CgMTL locus but only CgMTL1 correctly expresses the information encoded in it. CgMTL1 can encode the Cg a1 gene ( a information), or the Cg alpha1 and Cg alpha2 genes (alpha information). CgMTL2 contains an identical copy of the Cg a1 gene. CgMTL3 contains an identical copy of the Cg alpha1 gene but a longer variant of the Cg alpha2 gene that we termed Cg alpha3. In S. cerevisiae diploid cells, that express Sc a and Sc alpha information, Sc a1 and Sc alpha2 proteins form a heterodimer, which represses genes expressed only in haploid cells and some genes involved in stress response. We constructed C. glabrata strains that simultaneously express Cg a1 and Cg alpha2 or Cg a1 and Cg alpha3 genes. We did not find any phenotype in these strains when grown under a large variety of stress and nutritional conditions. However, we detected an interaction between Cg a1 and Cg alpha2 but not between Cg a1 and Cg alpha3 by Bimolecular Fluorescence Complementation and co-immunoprecipitation assays.
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- 2016
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17. Sir3 Polymorphisms in Candida glabrata clinical isolates
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Alfredo Ponce de León, Guadalupe Gutiérrez-Escobedo, Miriam Bobadilla-del Valle, José Sifuentes-Osornio, Irene Castaño, Emmanuel Orta-Zavalza, Gabriel Díaz de León, Verónica Martínez-Jiménez, Alejandro De Las Peñas, and Candy Y. Ramírez-Zavaleta
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Veterinary (miscellaneous) ,Saccharomyces cerevisiae ,Molecular Sequence Data ,Gene Expression ,Candida glabrata ,Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology ,Microbiology ,Genome ,Fungal Proteins ,Gene expression ,Cell Adhesion ,Gene silencing ,Humans ,DNA, Fungal ,Gene ,Mexico ,Genetics ,Fungal protein ,Polymorphism, Genetic ,biology ,Candidiasis ,Epithelial Cells ,Sequence Analysis, DNA ,biology.organism_classification ,Hospitals ,Bacterial adhesin ,Agronomy and Crop Science ,HeLa Cells - Abstract
The opportunistic fungal pathogen Candida glabrata adheres tightly to epithelial cells in culture, mainly through the adhesin Epa1. EPA1 is the founding member of a family of up to 23 putative adhesin-encoding genes present in the C. glabrata genome. The majority of the EPA genes are localized close to the telomeres, where they are repressed by subtelomeric silencing that depends on the Sir, Ku, Rif1, and Rap1 proteins. EPA6 and EPA7 also encode functional adhesins that are repressed in vitro. EPA1 expression in vitro is tightly controlled both positively and negatively, and in addition, presents high cell-to-cell heterogeneity, which depends on Sir-mediated silencing. In this work, we characterized the ability to adhere to HeLa epithelial cells and the expression of several EPA genes in a collection of 79 C. glabrata clinical isolates from several hospitals in Mexico. We found 11 isolates that showed increased adherence to mammalian cells compared with our reference strain under conditions where EPA1 is not expressed. The majority of these isolates displayed over-expression of EPA1 and EPA6 or EPA7, but did not show increased biofilm formation. Sequencing of the SIR3 gene of several hyper-adherent isolates revealed that all of them contain several polymorphisms with respect to the reference strain. Interestingly, two isolates have polymorphisms in positions flanked by clusters of amino acids required for silencing in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Sir3 protein. Our data show that there is a large variability in adhesin expression and adherence to epithelial cells among different C. glabrata clinical isolates.
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- 2012
18. LECTINIC BINDING OF CANDIDA GLABRATA TO OLIGOSACCHARIDES ON THE CORONARY LUMINAL MEMBRANE ALTERS FLOW‐INDUCED CARDIAC RESPONSES
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Candy Y. Ramírez-Zavaleta, Alejandro De Las Peñas, Irene Castaño, David Torres-Tirado, and Rafael Rubio
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Candida glabrata ,biology ,Chemistry ,Genetics ,biology.organism_classification ,Luminal membrane ,Molecular Biology ,Biochemistry ,Molecular biology ,Biotechnology - Published
- 2012
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19. A novel downstream regulatory element cooperates with the silencing machinery to repress EPA1 expression in Candida glabrata
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Brendan P. Cormack, Candy Y. Ramírez-Zavaleta, Alejandro De Las Peñas, Verónica Martínez-Jiménez, Shih Jung Pan, Verónica Gallegos-García, Marcela Briones Martin-del-Campo, Jacqueline Juárez-Cepeda, and Irene Castaño
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Microbiological Techniques ,Transcriptional Activation ,Genes, Fungal ,Repressor ,Candida glabrata ,Investigations ,Histone Deacetylases ,Fungal Proteins ,Transcription (biology) ,Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal ,Lectins ,Genetics ,Cell Adhesion ,Gene silencing ,Humans ,Gene Silencing ,Regulatory Elements, Transcriptional ,Psychological repression ,Gene ,Cells, Cultured ,Regulation of gene expression ,biology ,Fungal genetics ,Chromosome Mapping ,Epithelial Cells ,Telomere ,biology.organism_classification ,Culture Media ,DNA-Binding Proteins ,Repressor Proteins ,Multiprotein Complexes ,Trans-Activators ,Chromosomes, Fungal ,Cell Division - Abstract
Candida glabrata, an opportunistic fungal pathogen, adheres to mammalian epithelial cells; adherence is mediated primarily by the Epa1 adhesin. EPA1 is a member of a large gene family of ∼23 paralogues, which encode putative adhesins. In this study, we address how EPA1 transcription is regulated. Our data show that EPA1 expression is subject to two distinct negative regulatory mechanisms. EPA1 transcription is repressed by subtelomeric silencing: the Sir complex (Sir2–Sir4), Rap1, Rif1, yKu70, and yKu80 are required for full repression. Activation of EPA1 occurs immediately after dilution of stationary phase (SP) cells into fresh media; however, transcription is rapidly repressed again, limiting expression to lag phase, just as the cells exit stationary phase. This repression following lag phase requires a cis-acting regulatory negative element (NE) located in the EPA1 3′-intergenic region and is independent of telomere proximity. Bioinformatic analysis shows that there are 10 copies of the NE-like sequence in the C. glabrata genome associated with other EPA genes as well as non-EPA genes.
- Published
- 2012
20. A Protosilencer of Subtelomeric Gene Expression in Candida glabrata with Unique Properties
- Author
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Luis Medina-Sánchez, Irene Castaño, Candy Y. Ramírez-Zavaleta, Alejandro De Las Peñas, and Alejandro Juárez-Reyes
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Telomere-Binding Proteins ,Candida glabrata ,Investigations ,Sirtuin 2 ,Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal ,Sirtuin 3 ,Gene Order ,Genetics ,Silencer Elements, Transcriptional ,Gene silencing ,Gene Silencing ,Promoter Regions, Genetic ,Gene ,Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid ,Telomere-binding protein ,Reporter gene ,biology ,Telomere ,biology.organism_classification ,Subtelomere ,Chromatin ,DNA-Binding Proteins ,Mutagenesis, Insertional ,Gene Deletion - Abstract
Adherence to host cells is an important step in the pathogenicity of the opportunistic fungal pathogen Candida glabrata. This adherence is mediated by some members of the large family of cell wall proteins encoded by the EPA (Epithelial Adhesin) genes present in the C. glabrata genome. The majority of the EPA genes are localized close to different telomeres in C. glabrata, resulting in a negative regulation of transcription of these genes through chromatin-based subtelomeric silencing. In vitro, adherence to epithelial cells is mainly mediated by Epa1, the only member of the EPA family that is expressed in vitro. EPA1 forms a cluster with EPA2 and EPA3 at the subtelomeric region of telomere E-R. EPA2 and EPA3 are subject to silencing that propagates from this telomere in a process that depends on the Sir2, -3, -4, and Rif1 proteins, but surprisingly not on the yKu70 and yKu80 proteins. Here we describe that the yKu70/yKu80-independent silencing of telomere E-R is due to the presence of a cis-acting protosilencer (Sil2126) located between EPA3 and the telomere. This element can silence a reporter gene when placed 31.9 kb away from this telomere, but not when it is removed from the telomere context, or when it is placed near other telomeres, or inverted with respect to the reporter. Importantly, we show that the cis-acting Sil2126 element is required for the yKu70/80-independent silencing of this telomere, underscoring the importance of cis-elements for repressive chromatin formation and spreading on some telomeres in C. glabrata.
- Published
- 2012
21. Analysis of Subtelomeric Silencing in Candida glabrata
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Alejandro De Las Peñas, Alejandro Juárez-Reyes, and Irene Castaño
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Regulation of gene expression ,Transposable element ,Genetics ,Reporter gene ,URA3 ,Transposon mutagenesis ,Locus (genetics) ,Biology ,Gene ,Selectable marker - Abstract
Analysis of gene function often involves detailed studies of when a given gene is expressed or silenced. Transposon mutagenesis is a powerful tool to generate insertional mutations that provide with a selectable marker and a reporter gene that can be used to analyze the transcriptional activity of a specific locus in a variety of microorganisms to study gene regulation. Then the reporter gene expression can be easily measured under different conditions to gain insight into the regulation of the particular locus of interest. We have used transposon mutagenesis as a tool to generate insertional mutations with a modified Tn7 transposon containing the reporter gene URA3 (Tn7-URA3) to study subtelomeric silencing in the opportunistic fungal pathogen Candida glabrata. This method consists of two major steps: an in vitro Tn7-URA3 mutagenesis of a plasmid containing the desired subtelomeric region to be analyzed, followed by homologous recombination into the target region of the C. glabrata genome. As an alternative, a fusion PCR protocol can also be used in which the URA3 reporter gene can be "fused" together with the 5' and 3' regions of the desired insertion point by a two step PCR protocol. This fusion product can be introduced into the C. glabrata genome by homologous recombination after transformation in the same way as the Tn7-URA3 mutagenesis products. Once the URA3 reporter gene has been introduced in the desired locus in the C. glabrata genome, a simple plate growth assay is performed to assess the expression of the reporter gene.
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- 2011
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
22. yKu70/yKu80 and Rif1 regulate silencing differentially at telomeres in Candida glabrata
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Omar Arroyo-Helguera, Brendan P. Cormack, Alejandro Juárez-Reyes, Shih Jung Pan, Alejandro De Las Peñas, Irene Castaño, and Lluvia L. Rosas-Hernández
- Subjects
Telomere-binding protein ,Genetics ,Fungal protein ,Reporter gene ,Candida glabrata ,biology ,Telomere-Binding Proteins ,SIR proteins ,General Medicine ,Articles ,Telomere ,biology.organism_classification ,Subtelomere ,Microbiology ,Fungal Proteins ,Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal ,Gene silencing ,Gene Silencing ,Molecular Biology ,Cell Adhesion Molecules - Abstract
Candida glabrata , a common opportunistic fungal pathogen, adheres efficiently to mammalian epithelial cells in culture. This interaction in vitro depends mainly on the adhesin Epa1, one of a large family of cell wall proteins. Most of the EPA genes are located in subtelomeric regions, where they are transcriptionally repressed by silencing. In order to better characterize the transcriptional regulation of the EPA family, we have assessed the importance of C. glabrata orthologues of known regulators of subtelomeric silencing in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. To this end, we used a series of strains containing insertions of the reporter URA3 gene within different intergenic regions throughout four telomeres of C. glabrata . Using these reporter strains, we have assessed the roles of SIR2 , SIR3 , SIR4 , HDF1 (yKu70), HDF2 (yKu80), and RIF1 in mediating silencing at four C. glabrata telomeres. We found that, whereas the SIR proteins are absolutely required for silencing of the reporter genes and the native subtelomeric EPA genes, the Rif1 and the Ku proteins regulate silencing at only a subset of the analyzed telomeres. We also mapped a cis element adjacent to the EPA3 locus that can silence a reporter gene when placed at a distance of 31 kb from the telomere. Our data show that silencing of the C. glabrata telomeres varies from telomere to telomere. In addition, recruitment of silencing proteins to the subtelomeres is likely, for certain telomeres, to depend both on the telomeric repeats and on particular discrete silencing elements.
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- 2008
23. Local and regional chromatin silencing inCandida glabrata: consequences for adhesion and the response to stress
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Jacqueline Juárez-Cepeda, Marcela Briones-Martin-del-Campo, Irene Castaño, Eunice López-Fuentes, Alejandro De Las Peñas, and Guadalupe Gutiérrez-Escobedo
- Subjects
Repressor ,Chromatin silencing ,Candida glabrata ,Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology ,Microbiology ,Histone Deacetylases ,Epigenesis, Genetic ,Fungal Proteins ,Stress, Physiological ,Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal ,Cell Adhesion ,Animals ,Humans ,Gene silencing ,Protein Interaction Maps ,Epigenetics ,Genetics ,biology ,General Medicine ,biology.organism_classification ,Chromatin ,DNA-Binding Proteins ,Histone ,Host-Pathogen Interactions ,biology.protein ,Histone deacetylase - Abstract
Candida glabrata is a fungal pathogen frequently found as a commensal in humans. To colonize and disseminate successfully in the mammalian host, C. glabrata must detect signals within the host and reprogram gene expression to respond appropriately to hostile environmental conditions. One of the layers of regulation of expression of many virulence-related genes (adhesin-encoding genes, genes involved in response to oxidative stress and xenobiotics) is achieved through epigenetic mechanisms. Local and regional silencing is mediated by the activity of two NAD(+)-dependent histone deacetylases, Hst1 and Sir2, respectively, repressing many virulence genes. Hst1 and Sir2 interact with different repressor complexes to achieve regional or local silencing. Sir2 can associate with Sir4, which is then recruited to the telomere by Rap1 and yKu. Deacetylation of the histone tails creates high affinity binding sites for new molecules of the Sir complex, thereby spreading the silent domain over >20 kb. Many of the adhesin-encoding EPA genes are subject to this regulation. Hst1 in turn associates with the Sum1-Rfm1 complex. Sum1 is a DNA-binding protein, which recognizes specific sites at individual promoters, recruiting Hst1 to specific genes involved in the response to oxidative stress and xenobiotics, which results in their repression.
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- 2015
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
24. Tn7-based genome-wide random insertional mutagenesis of Candida glabrata
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Nini Guo, Brendan P. Cormack, Shihjung Pan, Alejandro De Las Peñas, Robert Cregg, Irene Castaño, Nancy L. Craig, Rupinder Kaur, and Matthew C. Biery
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Transposable element ,DNA, Bacterial ,Genetic Markers ,DNA Mutational Analysis ,Genes, Fungal ,Locus (genetics) ,Candida glabrata ,Replication Origin ,Biology ,Genome ,Insertional mutagenesis ,Transformation, Genetic ,Gene duplication ,Genetics ,Escherichia coli ,Methods ,Cloning, Molecular ,DNA, Fungal ,Uracil ,Gene ,Genetics (clinical) ,Recombination, Genetic ,biology.organism_classification ,Fosmid ,Mutagenesis, Insertional ,Phenotype ,DNA Transposable Elements ,Genome, Fungal - Abstract
We describe and characterize a method for insertional mutagenesis of the yeast pathogen Candida glabrata using the bacterial transposon Tn7. Tn7 was used to mutagenize a C. glabrata genomic fosmid library. Pools of random Tn7insertions in individual fosmids were recovered by transformation intoEscherichia coli. Subsequently, these were introduced by recombination into the C. glabrata genome. We found thatC. glabrata genomic fragments carrying a Tn7insertion could integrate into the genome by nonhomologous recombination, by single crossover (generating a duplication of the insertionally mutagenized locus), and by double crossover, yielding an allele replacement. We were able to generate a highly representative set of ∼104 allele replacements in C. glabrata, and an initial characterization of these shows that a wide diversity of genes were targeted in the mutagenesis. Because the identity of disrupted genes for any mutant of interest can be rapidly identified, this method should be of general utility in functional genomic characterization of this important yeast pathogen. In addition, the method might be broadly applicable to mutational analysis of other organisms.
- Published
- 2003
25. Introduction of point mutations into cloned genes
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Irene Castaño and Brendan P. Cormack
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Genetics ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Plasmid ,chemistry ,Point mutation ,Mutant ,Mutagenesis (molecular biology technique) ,Promoter ,Biology ,Gene ,Genetic analysis ,DNA - Abstract
Publisher Summary The genetic analysis of essential genes still relies largely on the generation of point mutations in those genes for an alternative approach, exploiting repressible promoters and ubiquitin destabilization of the gene product. This chapter discusses briefly the principle of the plasmid shuffle technique, which is critical to the generation and analysis of point mutants in essential genes. The chapter also discusses the two approaches to in vitro generalized mutagenesis of cloned yeast genes and describes several methods for the introduction of mutations into a clonable DNA fragment. Where appropriate, methods for introduction of the mutagenized fragment into the full-length yeast gene are also described in the chapter. There are many available techniques for introducing sequence changes into cloned DNAs
- Published
- 2002
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
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