Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Okagaki, Laura H
• Strain, Anna K
• Nielsen, Judith N
• Charlier, Caroline
• Baltes, Nicholas J
• Chrétien, Fabrice
• Heitman, Joseph
• Dromer, Françoise
• Nielsen, Kirsten
• Mitchell, Aaron P.

Titel

Cryptococcal cell morphology affects host cell interactions and pathogenicity

Ist Teil von

• PLoS pathogens, 2010-06, Vol.6 (6), p.e1000953-e1000953

Ort / Verlag

United States: Public Library of Science

Erscheinungsjahr

2010

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Cryptococcus neoformans is a common life-threatening human fungal pathogen. The size of cryptococcal cells is typically 5 to 10 microm. Cell enlargement was observed in vivo, producing cells up to 100 microm. These morphological changes in cell size affected pathogenicity via reducing phagocytosis by host mononuclear cells, increasing resistance to oxidative and nitrosative stress, and correlated with reduced penetration of the central nervous system. Cell enlargement was stimulated by coinfection with strains of opposite mating type, and ste3aDelta pheromone receptor mutant strains had reduced cell enlargement. Finally, analysis of DNA content in this novel cell type revealed that these enlarged cells were polyploid, uninucleate, and produced daughter cells in vivo. These results describe a novel mechanism by which C. neoformans evades host phagocytosis to allow survival of a subset of the population at early stages of infection. Thus, morphological changes play unique and specialized roles during infection.