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Unconventional Constituents and Shared Molecular Architecture of the Melanized Cell Wall of C. neoformans and Spore Wall of S. cerevisiae

Authors :
Christine Chrissian
Coney Pei-Chen Lin
Emma Camacho
Arturo Casadevall
Aaron M. Neiman
Ruth E. Stark
Source :
Journal of Fungi, Vol 6, Iss 4, p 329 (2020)
Publication Year :
2020
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2020.

Abstract

The fungal cell wall serves as the interface between the cell and the environment. Fungal cell walls are composed largely of polysaccharides, primarily glucans and chitin, though in many fungi stress-resistant cell types elaborate additional cell wall structures. Here, we use solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to compare the architecture of cell wall fractions isolated from Saccharomyces cerevisiae spores and Cryptococcus neoformans melanized cells. The specialized cell walls of these two divergent fungi are highly similar in composition. Both use chitosan, the deacetylated derivative of chitin, as a scaffold on which a polyaromatic polymer, dityrosine and melanin, respectively, is assembled. Additionally, we demonstrate that a previously identified but uncharacterized component of the S. cerevisiae spore wall is composed of triglycerides, which are also present in the C. neoformans melanized cell wall. Moreover, we identify a tyrosine-derived constituent in the C. neoformans wall that, although it is not dityrosine, is a non-pigment constituent of the cell wall. The similar composition of the walls of these two phylogenetically distant species suggests that triglycerides, polyaromatics, and chitosan are basic building blocks used to assemble highly stress-resistant cell walls and the use of these constituents may be broadly conserved in other fungal species.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
2309608X
Volume :
6
Issue :
4
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Journal of Fungi
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.57462799d798411a8df9bf3fccac151a
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/jof6040329