Signal Transduction Cascades Regulating Fungal Development and Virulence
Year: 2000
Type: review
Abstract: Cellular differentiation, mating, and filamentous growth are regulated in many fungi by environmental and nutritional signals. For example, in response to nitrogen limitation, diploid cells of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae undergo a dimorphic transition to filamentous growth referred to as pseudohyphal differentiation. Yeast filamentous growth is regulated, in part, by two conserved signal transduction cascades: a mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade and a G-protein regulated cyclic AMP signaling pathway. Related signaling cascades play an analogous role in regulating mating and virulence in the plant fungal pathogen Ustilago maydis and the human fungal pathogens Cryptococcus neoformans and Candida albicans. We review here studies on the signaling cascades that regulate development of these and other fungi. This analysis illustrates both how the model yeast S. cerevisiae can serve as a paradigm for signaling in other organisms and also how studies in other fungi provide insights into conserved signaling pathways that operate in many divergent organisms.
Authors: Klaus B. Lengeler, Robert C. Davidson, Cletus D'souza, Toshiaki Harashima, Wei-Chiang Shen, Ping Wang, Xuewen Pan, Michael Waugh, Joseph Heitman
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: Genetics of Cryptococcus sexual reproduction, Role of Calcineurin in Fungal Virulence, G316281995, CRYPTOCOCCUS NEOFORMANS--A MODEL FOR PATHOGENIC FUNGI, NOVEL ANTIFUNGAL DRUG TARGETS IN CRYPTOCOCCUS NEOFORMANS, Impact of RNAi and unisexual reproduction on Cryptococcus evolution, drug resistance, and pathogenesis
OpenAlex ID: W2070916151