Abstract
Malassezia yeasts are lipid dependent and part of the human and animal skin microbiome. However, they are also associated with a variety of dermatological conditions and even cause systemic infections. How these yeasts can live as commensals on the skin and switch to a pathogenic stage has long been a matter of debate. Lipids are important cellular molecules, and understanding the lipid metabolism and composition of Malassezia species is crucial to comprehending their biology and host–microbe interaction. Here, we investigated the lipid composition of Malassezia strains grown to the stationary phase in a complex Dixon medium broth. In this study, we perform a lipidomic analysis of a subset of species; in addition, we conducted a gene prediction analysis for the detection of lipid metabolic proteins. We identified 18 lipid classes and 428 lipidic compounds. The most commonly found lipids were triglycerides (TAG), sterol (CH), diglycerides (DG), fatty acids (FAs), phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), ceramides, cholesteryl ester (CE), sphingomyelin (SM), acylcarnitine, and lysophospholipids. Particularly, we found a low content of CEs in Malassezia furfur, atypical M. furfur, and Malassezia pachydermatis and undetectable traces of these components in Malassezia globosa, Malassezia restricta, and Malassezia sympodialis. Remarkably, uncommon lipids in yeast, like diacylglyceryltrimethylhomoserine and FA esters of hydroxyl FAs, were found in a variable concentration in these Malassezia species. The latter are bioactive lipids recently reported to have antidiabetic and anti-inflammatory properties. The results obtained can be used to discriminate different Malassezia species and offer a new overview of the lipid composition of these yeasts. We could confirm the presence and the absence of certain lipid-biosynthesis genes in specific species. Further analyses are necessary to continue disclosing the complex lipidome of Malassezia species and the impact of the lipid metabolism in connection with the host interaction.
Highlights
Lipid-dependent Malassezia species belong to the phylum Basidiomycota and are the most important constituent of the human skin mycobiota
Using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography combined with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC/QTOF-MS) (Köfeler et al, 2012), we identified 18 lipid classes and 428 lipidic compounds
The lipid classes identified are as follows: the human sebum [triglycerides (TAG), sterols, diglycerides (DG), FAs, phosphatidylcholine (PC), diacylglyceryltrimethylhomoserine (DGTS), fatty acids esters of hydroxyl fatty acids (FAHFAs), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), ceramides, cholesteryl ester (CE), and ceramide or sphingomyelin (SM); the relative abundance (%mol) of these species differed between the six species analyzed (Figure 1)
Summary
Lipid-dependent Malassezia species belong to the phylum Basidiomycota and are the most important constituent of the human skin mycobiota. The absence of de novo synthesis of fatty acids (FAs) in Malassezia species is determined by the absence of genes that encode for FA synthase in their genomes (Triana et al, 2015; Wu et al, 2015; Lorch et al, 2018) This characteristic is related to the requirement to exploit lipid sources contained in the human sebum [triglycerides (TAG), FAs, wax esters, sterol esters, cholesterol, cholesterol esters, and squalene] (Ro and Dawson, 2005). For this reason, Malassezia species secrete several enzymes, such as esterases, lipases, lipoxygenases, and proteases, in order to supply their lipid requirements (Mayser and Gaitanis, 2010; Park et al, 2017). Changes in the external FA composition represent a challenge for Malassezia metabolism; not much is known about the lipid composition and adaptation of species of this genus (Shifrine and Marr, 1963; Porro et al, 1976; Huang et al, 1993; Mayser et al, 1998)
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