Candida albicans Hap43 is a repressor induced under low-iron conditions and is essential for iron-responsive transcriptional regulation and virulence

Eukaryot Cell. 2011 Feb;10(2):207-25. doi: 10.1128/EC.00158-10. Epub 2010 Dec 3.

Abstract

Candida albicans is an opportunistic fungal pathogen that exists as normal flora in healthy human bodies but causes life-threatening infections in immunocompromised patients. In addition to innate and adaptive immunities, hosts also resist microbial infections by developing a mechanism of "natural resistance" that maintains a low level of free iron to restrict the growth of invading pathogens. C. albicans must overcome this iron-deprived environment to cause infections. There are three types of iron-responsive transcriptional regulators in fungi; Aft1/Aft2 activators in yeast, GATA-type repressors in many fungi, and HapX/Php4 in Schizosaccharomyces pombe and Aspergillus species. In this study, we characterized the iron-responsive regulator Hap43, which is the C. albicans homolog of HapX/Php4 and is repressed by the GATA-type repressor Sfu1 under iron-sufficient conditions. We provide evidence that Hap43 is essential for the growth of C. albicans under low-iron conditions and for C. albicans virulence in a mouse model of infection. Hap43 was not required for iron acquisition under low-iron conditions. Instead, it was responsible for repression of genes that encode iron-dependent proteins involved in mitochondrial respiration and iron-sulfur cluster assembly. We also demonstrated that Hap43 executes its function by becoming a transcriptional repressor and accumulating in the nucleus in response to iron deprivation. Finally, we found a connection between Hap43 and the global corepressor Tup1 in low-iron-induced flavinogenesis. Taken together, our data suggest a complex interplay among Hap43, Sfu1, and Tup1 to coordinately regulate iron acquisition, iron utilization, and other iron-responsive metabolic activities.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Animals
  • Candida albicans / pathogenicity
  • Candida albicans / physiology*
  • Candidiasis / pathology
  • Cell Nucleus / metabolism
  • Cell Proliferation
  • Female
  • Flavins / biosynthesis
  • Fungal Proteins / genetics
  • Fungal Proteins / metabolism*
  • Gene Deletion
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal
  • Humans
  • Iron / metabolism
  • Iron Deficiencies*
  • Kidney / pathology
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred BALB C
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Repressor Proteins / genetics
  • Repressor Proteins / metabolism*
  • Sequence Alignment
  • Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
  • Two-Hybrid System Techniques
  • Virulence

Substances

  • Flavins
  • Fungal Proteins
  • Repressor Proteins
  • Iron