Protein-Protein Interactions in Candida albicans.

Floris Schoeters,Patrick Van Dijck

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2019.01792

Abstract

Despite being one of the most important human fungal pathogens, Candida albicans has not been studied extensively at the level of protein-protein interactions (PPIs) and data on PPIs are not readily available in online databases. In January 2018, the database called “Biological General Repository for Interaction Datasets (BioGRID)” that contains the most PPIs for C. albicans, only documented 188 physical or direct PPIs (release 3.4.156) while several more can be found in the literature. Other databases such as the String database, the Molecular INTeraction Database (MINT), and the Database for Interacting Proteins (DIP) database contain even fewer interactions or do not even include C. albicans as a searchable term. Because of the non-canonical codon usage of C. albicans where CUG is translated as serine rather than leucine, it is often problematic to use the yeast two-hybrid system in Saccharomyces cerevisiae to study C. albicans PPIs. However, studying PPIs is crucial to gain a thorough understanding of the function of proteins, biological processes and pathways. PPIs can also be potential drug targets. To aid in creating PPI networks and updating the BioGRID, we performed an exhaustive literature search in order to provide, in an accessible format, a more extensive list of known PPIs in C. albicans.

Highlights

Fungal Infections and Candida albicansOne to five million fungal species are estimated to exist of which only 400–600 (< 0.1%) are documented to be pathogenic to humans and of those only about 100 are commonly found as human pathogens (Taylor et al, 2001; Blackwell, 2011; de Pauw, 2011; Köhler et al, 2014; Kastora et al, 2017)
Limited by the difficulties encountered in C. albicans research (Noble and Johnson, 2007; Palzer et al, 2013) only a small number of protein-protein interactions (PPIs) have been detected in C. albicans
To further look into the differences between PPIs in C. albicans and S. cerevisiae, we looked into the literature for PPIs that were investigated but not demonstrated for C. albicans

Summary

INTRODUCTION

One to five million fungal species are estimated to exist of which only 400–600 (< 0.1%) are documented to be pathogenic to humans and of those only about 100 are commonly found as human pathogens (Taylor et al, 2001; Blackwell, 2011; de Pauw, 2011; Köhler et al, 2014; Kastora et al, 2017). C. albicans can cause superficial mucosal infections such as oral thrush or vulvovaginal candidiasis and lifethreatening invasive infections (Spellberg, 2008; Brown et al, 2012; Köhler et al, 2014; Noble et al, 2017). This switch from a commensal to a potentially lethal pathogen is still not fully understood (Noble et al, 2017). The TAP-tag has been used to study PPIs in C. albicans, but only a limited number of PPIs or complexes have been studied with this technique (see below)

RESULTS

Results

CONCLUSION