Die Rolle des TEA/ATTS-Transkriptionsfaktors CaTEC1p bei der Hyphenbildung und Virulenz von Candida albicans

Abstract

The TEA transcription factor CaTec1p regulates morphogenetic development of the human fungal pathogen C. albicans in vitro. Furthermore, evasion from macrophages and virulence of C. albicans is attenuated in the catec1/catec1 mutant. Here, we report that induced over-expression of CaTEC1 rescues the morphological and virulence defects of mutations in the signal transduction pathways comprising RAS1, a mitogen activated protein kinase module, and a cAMP pathway. This suggests that these pathways converge on CaTec1p. From this and other results, we conclude that the TEA transcription factor CaTec1p delivers integrated signals of upstream regulatory components to a subset of virulence genes that is essential for pathogenesis of C. albicans. In support of this hypothesis, we show for the first time that over-expression of a transcription factor enhanced virulence of a microbial pathogen above wild-type levels.