Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0038187 (starvation)
 24,951 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Previous studies have demonstrated an important role for the vacuole in the virulence of the fungus Cryptococcus and studies in yeast have implicated the vacuolar protein Vps41 in copper loading of proteins such as iron transporters. However, our studies found that a cryptococcal vps41Delta strain displayed wild-type growth on media containing iron and copper chelators and normal activity of the copper-containing virulence factor laccase as well as almost normal growth at 37 degrees C and wild-type production of the virulence factor capsule. Despite these attributes, the vps41Delta mutant strain showed a dramatic attenuation of virulence in mice and co-incubation of mutant cells with the macrophage cell line, J774.16, resulted in a dramatic loss in viability of the vps41Delta mutant strain at 10 h compared with wild-type and complemented strains. Closer examination revealed that the vps41Delta mutant displayed a dramatic loss in viability after nutrient starvation which was traced to a failure to undergo G2 arrest, but there was no defect in the formation of autophagic or proteolytic vesicles. Our results indicate that VPS41 plays a key role in regulating starvation response in this pathogenic organism and that defects in cell cycle arrest are associated with attenuated pathogenic fitness in mammalian hosts.
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PMID:Role of a VPS41 homologue in starvation response, intracellular survival and virulence of Cryptococcus neoformans. 1687 14

Cryptococcus neoformans is a major cause of fungal meningitis in individuals with impaired immunity. Our previous studies have shown that the VPS41 gene plays a critical role in the survival of Cryptococcus neoformans under nitrogen starvation; however, the molecular mechanisms underlying VPS41-mediated starvation response remain to be elucidated. In the present study, we show that, under nitrogen starvation, VPS41 strongly enhanced ICL1 expression in C. neoformans and that overexpression of ICL1 in the vps41 mutant dramatically suppressed its defects in starvation response due to the loss of VPS41 function. Moreover, targeted deletion of ICL1 resulted in a dramatic decline in viability of C. neoformans cells under nitrogen deprivation. Taken together, our data suggest a model in which VPS41 up-regulates ICL1 expression, directly or indirectly, to promote survival of C. neoformans under nitrogen starvation.
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PMID:Requirement of the isocitrate lyase gene ICL1 for VPS41-mediated starvation response in Cryptococcus neoformans. 2735 Jun 14