Cytochemical specialization at the haustorial interface of a biotrophic fungal parasite, Albugo Candida

1983 ◽  
Vol 61 (7) ◽  
pp. 2004-2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Coffey

The haustorial apparatus of Albugo candida consisted of a narrow neck attached to a spherical body, which was packed with mitochondria. Covering the haustorial body was an electron-dense matrix which was bounded by the extrahaustorial membrane. This membrane, a continuation of the host cell plasmalemma, was highly convoluted with many short tentacles extending into the surrounding host cytoplasm. Single cisternae of host rough endoplasmic reticulum were always closely associated with the distal portion of the haustorial neck. Silver proteinate staining indicated that both the penetration jacket, a distinct zone surrounding the proximal part of the haustorial neck, and the extrahaustorial matrix were polysaccharide in nature, possibly complexed to other macromolecules such as proteins. The haustorial cell wall reacted only slightly with the silver proteinate, and in the distal region of the neck, there was no reaction. The fungal plasmalemma reacted strongly with the stain, except in the distal neck region, where there was no staining. With PACP, a staining procedure believed specific for the plasmalemma, the extrahaustorial membrane did not stain, whilst the host plasmalemma continuous with it did stain. The distal region of the haustorial neck wall also stained intensely with PACP clearly differentiating it cytochemically from the much lighter staining proximal neck and haustorial body walls. The penetration jacket stained more intensely than the extrahaustorial matrix with PACP, which might suggest a different chemical composition. Following incubation in 0.8 M sucrose osmoticum, the extrahaustorial membrane pulled away from the proximal neck wall, but remained tightly affixed to the distal neck wall, indicating that a tight junction existed between that membrane and the fungal cell wall in that region. Enzymic digestion with either cellulase or an endo-β-1,3-glucanase removed neither the haustorial body wall nor the extrahaustorial matrix. The significance of this finding is briefly discussed.

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 1484-1493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie M. Wolf ◽  
Javier Espadas-Moreno ◽  
Jose L. Luque-Garcia ◽  
Arturo Casadevall

ABSTRACTCryptococcus neoformansproduces extracellular vesicles containing a variety of cargo, including virulence factors. To become extracellular, these vesicles not only must be released from the plasma membrane but also must pass through the dense matrix of the cell wall. The greatest unknown in the area of fungal vesicles is the mechanism by which these vesicles are released to the extracellular space given the presence of the fungal cell wall. Here we used electron microscopy techniques to image the interactions of vesicles with the cell wall. Our goal was to define the ultrastructural morphology of the process to gain insights into the mechanisms involved. We describe single and multiple vesicle-leaving events, which we hypothesized were due to plasma membrane and multivesicular body vesicle origins, respectively. We further utilized melanized cells to “trap” vesicles and visualize those passing through the cell wall. Vesicle size differed depending on whether vesicles left the cytoplasm in single versus multiple release events. Furthermore, we analyzed different vesicle populations for vesicle dimensions and protein composition. Proteomic analysis tripled the number of proteins known to be associated with vesicles. Despite separation of vesicles into batches differing in size, we did not identify major differences in protein composition. In summary, our results indicate that vesicles are generated by more than one mechanism, that vesicles exit the cell by traversing the cell wall, and that vesicle populations exist as a continuum with regard to size and protein composition.


1975 ◽  
Vol 53 (13) ◽  
pp. 1285-1299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Coffey

The small spherical haustorium of the white blister fungus is connected to the much larger haustorial mother cell by a slender cylindrical neck. The haustorium contains mitochondria with tubular cristae as well as ribosomes and occasional cisternae of rough endoplasmic reticulum. Nuclei and perinuclear dictyosomes are found in the mother cells but are absent from haustoria. No discontinuity is found in the fungal cell wall in the haustorial neck. Immediately adjacent to the fungal wall and extending through the penetration site to a point about midway along the neck is a dark-staining layer continuous with the host cell wall. A collar consisting of fibrillar material, also continuous with the host cell wall, is commonly found around the proximal portion of the neck external to this dark-staining layer. An electron-dense sheath surrounds the thin wall of the haustorial body but is absent from the neck region. A series of tubules is continuous with the invaginated host plasmalemma which surrounds the haustorial body. These tubules contain an electron-dense core similar in appearance to, and continuous with, the sheath matrix. No evidence was obtained for the involvement of host dictyosomes and their secretory vesicles in the formation of the haustorial sheath. A constant feature of the haustorial apparatus is the association of flattened cisternae of host endoplasmic reticulum with the distal portion of the haustorial neck. The significance of this finding is discussed in relation to the endomembrane concept.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 812-830 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Marie Arockianathan ◽  
Monika Mishra ◽  
Rituraj Niranjan

The developing resistance in fungi has become a key challenge, which is being faced nowadays with the available antifungal agents in the market. Further search for novel compounds from different sources has been explored to meet this problem. The current review describes and highlights recent advancement in the antifungal drug aspects from plant and marine based sources. The current available antifungal agents act on specific targets on the fungal cell wall, like ergosterol synthesis, chitin biosynthesis, sphingolipid synthesis, glucan synthesis etc. We discuss some of the important anti-fungal agents like azole, polyene and allylamine classes that inhibit the ergosterol biosynthesis. Echinocandins inhibit β-1, 3 glucan synthesis in the fungal cell wall. The antifungals poloxins and nikkomycins inhibit fungal cell wall component chitin. Apart from these classes of drugs, several combinatorial therapies have been carried out to treat diseases due to fungal resistance. Recently, many antifungal agents derived from plant and marine sources showed potent activity. The renewed interest in plant and marine derived compounds for the fungal diseases created a new way to treat these resistant strains which are evident from the numerous literature publications in the recent years. Moreover, the compounds derived from both plant and marine sources showed promising results against fungal diseases. Altogether, this review article discusses the current antifungal agents and highlights the plant and marine based compounds as a potential promising antifungal agents.


Author(s):  
Anna Biernasiuk ◽  
Anna Berecka-Rycerz ◽  
Anna Gumieniczek ◽  
Maria Malm ◽  
Krzysztof Z. Łączkowski ◽  
...  

Abstract Recently, the occurrence of candidiasis has increased dramatically, especially in immunocompromised patients. Additionally, their treatment is often ineffective due to the resistance of yeasts to antimycotics. Therefore, there is a need to search for new antifungals. A series of nine newly synthesized thiazole derivatives containing the cyclopropane system, showing promising activity against Candida spp., has been further investigated. We decided to verify their antifungal activity towards clinical Candida albicans isolated from the oral cavity of patients with hematological malignancies and investigate the mode of action on fungal cell, the effect of combination with the selected antimycotics, toxicity to erythrocytes, and lipophilicity. These studies were performed by the broth microdilution method, test with sorbitol and ergosterol, checkerboard technique, erythrocyte lysis assay, and reversed phase thin-layer chromatography, respectively. All derivatives showed very strong activity (similar and even higher than nystatin) against all C. albicans isolates with minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) = 0.008–7.81 µg/mL Their mechanism of action may be related to action within the fungal cell wall structure and/or within the cell membrane. The interactions between the derivatives and the selected antimycotics (nystatin, chlorhexidine, and thymol) showed additive effect only in the case of combination some of them and thymol. The erythrocyte lysis assay confirmed the low cytotoxicity of these compounds as compared to nystatin. The high lipophilicity of the derivatives was related with their high antifungal activity. The present studies confirm that the studied thiazole derivatives containing the cyclopropane system appear to be a very promising group of compounds in treatment of infections caused by C. albicans. However, this requires further studies in vivo. Key points • The newly thiazoles showed high antifungal activity and some of them — additive effect in combination with thymol. • Their mode of action may be related with the influence on the structure of the fungal cell wall and/or the cell membrane. • The low cytotoxicity against erythrocytes and high lipophilicity of these derivatives are their additional good properties. Graphical abstract


2021 ◽  
pp. 2100110
Author(s):  
Liyuan Zhang ◽  
Mengchen Zhang ◽  
Gongping Liu ◽  
Wanqin Jin ◽  
Xiaoyan Li

2017 ◽  
Vol 89 (7) ◽  
pp. 885-898 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vadim B. Krylov ◽  
Lucia Paulovičová ◽  
Ema Paulovičová ◽  
Yury E. Tsvetkov ◽  
Nikolay E. Nifantiev

AbstractThe driving force for the constant improvement and development of new synthetic methodologies in carbohydrate chemistry is a growing demand for biologically important oligosaccharide ligands and neoglycoconjugates thereof for numerous biochemical investigations such as cell-to-pathogen interactions, immune response, cell adhesion, etc. Here we report our syntheses of the spacer-armed antigenic oligosaccharides related to three groups of the polysaccharides of the fungal cell-wall including α- and β-mannan, α- and β-glucan and galactomannan chains, which include new rationally designed synthetic blocks, efficient solutions for the stereoselective construction of glycoside bonds, and novel strategy for preparation of furanoside-containing oligosaccharides based on recently discovered pyranoside-into-furanoside (PIF) rearrangement.


Development ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 129 (16) ◽  
pp. 3815-3823 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florencia Cavodeassi ◽  
Isabel Rodríguez ◽  
Juan Modolell

During development, the imaginal wing disc of Drosophila is subdivided along the proximal-distal axis into different territories that will give rise to body wall (notum and mesothoracic pleura) and appendage (wing hinge and wing blade). Expression of the Iroquois complex (Iro-C) homeobox genes in the most proximal part of the disc defines the notum, since Iro-C– cells within this territory acquire the identity of the adjacent distal region, the wing hinge. Here we analyze how the expression of Iro-C is confined to the notum territory. Neither Wingless signalling, which is essential for wing development, nor Vein-dependent EGFR signalling, which is needed to activate Iro-C, appear to delimit Iro-C expression. We show that a main effector of this confinement is the TGFβ homolog Decapentaplegic (Dpp), a molecule known to pattern the disc along its anterior-posterior axis. At early second larval instar, the Dpp signalling pathway functions only in the wing and hinge territories, represses Iro-C and confines its expression to the notum territory. Later, Dpp becomes expressed in the most proximal part of the notum and turns off Iro-C in this region. This downregulation is associated with the subdivision of the notum into medial and lateral regions.


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