Abstract
The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has a remarkable ability to adapt its lifestyle to fluctuating or hostile environmental conditions. This adaptation most often involves morphological changes such as pseudofilaments, biofilm formation, or cell aggregation in the form of flocs. A prerequisite for these phenotypic changes is the ability to self-adhere and to adhere to abiotic surfaces. This ability is conferred by specialized surface proteins called flocculins, which are encoded by the FLO genes family in this yeast species. This mini-review focuses on the flocculin encoded by FLO11, which differs significantly from other flocculins in domain sequence and mode of genetic and epigenetic regulation, giving it an impressive plasticity that enables yeast cells to swiftly adapt to hostile environments or into new ecological niches. Furthermore, the common features of Flo11p with those of adhesins from pathogenic yeasts make FLO11 a good model to study the molecular mechanism underlying cell adhesion and biofilm formation, which are part of the initial step leading to fungal infections.
Highlights
When microbial cells are challenged by unfavorable environmental conditions, evolutionary models predict that natural selection favors genetic changes that give cells an advantage in an adverse condition
This prerequisite is brought about by a family of glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored cell wall proteins (GPI-CWPs) termed flocculins, which are encoded by FLO1, FLO5, FLO9, FLO10, and FLO11
Flo11p variant was still localized at the cell surface. These results indicate that part of Flo11p could be weakly retained in the cell wall by non-covalent bonding mainly by hydrogen bonding and S-S bridges [52]
Summary
When microbial cells are challenged by unfavorable environmental conditions, evolutionary models predict that natural selection favors genetic changes that give cells an advantage in an adverse condition. A key feature in this multicellular behavior is the original propensity of wild S. cerevisiae for cell–cell adhesion and cell–surface adhesion This prerequisite is brought about by a family of glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored cell wall proteins (GPI-CWPs) termed flocculins, which are encoded by FLO1, FLO5, FLO9, FLO10, and FLO11. Flo11p may be taken as a model for understanding cell–cell and cell–surface adhesion mechanisms that are exploited by pathogenic yeasts to adhere to abiotic surfaces such as catheters and gain access to the internal organs of patients or to serve as a reservoir of drug-resistant infectious cells in the form of biofilms.
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