Abstract
Due to its location, the fungal cell wall is the compartment that allows the interaction with the environment and/or the host, playing an important role during infection as well as in different biological functions such as cell morphology, cell permeability and protection against stress. All these processes involve the activation of signaling pathways within the cell. The cell wall integrity (CWI) pathway is the main route responsible for maintaining the functionality and proper structure of the cell wall. This pathway is highly conserved in the fungal kingdom and has been extensively characterized in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. However, there are still many unknown aspects of this pathway in the pathogenic fungi, such as Cryptococcus neoformans. This yeast is of particular interest because it is found in the environment, but can also behave as pathogen in multiple organisms, including vertebrates and invertebrates, so it has to adapt to multiple factors to survive in multiple niches. In this review, we summarize the components of the CWI pathway in C. neoformans as well as its involvement in different aspects such as virulence factors, morphological changes, and its role as target for antifungal therapies among others.
Highlights
Cryptococcus neoformans is a basidiomycetes yeast widely distributed in the environment that can behave as a pathogen in susceptible patients [1,2]
C. neoformans is acquired by inhalation of spores that initially establish infection in the lungs [2,9,10], but under immunosuppressive conditions this pathogen can disseminate to the central nervous system (CNS)
Adaptation at High Temperature The ability of C. neoformans to grow at 37 ◦C turns it into an invasive pathogenic fungus and excellent model to study virulence, pathogenesis and host interaction
Summary
Cryptococcus neoformans is a basidiomycetes yeast widely distributed in the environment that can behave as a pathogen in susceptible patients [1,2]. Disruption of the transcription factor Crz in C. neoformans (homolo3gouf e12 to calcineurin-responsive zinc finger ScCrz in S. cerevisiae), causes a phenotype similar to a CWI mutant (cna1), such as with increased susceptibility to cell wall stressors. Disruption of the transcription factor Crz in C. neoformans (homologue to calcineurin-responsive zinc finger ScCrz in S. cerevisiae), causes a phenotype similar to a CWI mutant (cna1), such as with increased susceptibility to cell wall stressors. This suggests that in C. neoformans Crz could be linked to CWI pathway [34,35], revealing CWI pathway as an open field of study in the cryptococcal research
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