Genetics of trans-kingdom interactions between Candida and bacteria

描述（由申请方提供）：念珠菌属被认为是重症监护病房内医院获得性感染的主要原因之一，也是影响免疫抑制个体（如HIV阳性患者）的主要原因。念珠菌利用多种毒力因子来定殖和感染宿主。念珠菌属是机会性真菌，通常不会引起健康个体感染。通常，重症监护病房的念珠菌感染与当前细菌的抗菌治疗有关。 感染念珠菌的这种表现可能是由于无意中杀死了正常的植物群， 身体允许真菌生长。包括C.几乎27%的患者感染白色念珠菌。最近的研究表明，C.白念珠菌和细菌可以通过识别细菌和念珠菌分泌的群体感应分子来影响彼此的生物活性。白色念珠菌。本研究的主要假设是，白色念珠菌具有几个遗传决定簇，使其能够感知和响应大多数与其在宿主环境中相互作用的细菌物种。在本研究中，我们将研究10个基因从C。我们从先前筛选的18，000株C.白色念珠菌菌株在选择细菌存在下的能力。由于这些遗传突变体是通过在细菌存在下共培养来鉴定的，因此我们还选择针对一组已知的细菌分泌分子来测试候选菌株，以便对适当的响应途径进行分类。我们还将确定念珠菌暴露于细菌时所选基因的时间表达。突变菌株将在存在或不存在细菌的情况下生长，以确定基因表达是组成型的还是由细菌的存在诱导的。我们还将使用无脊椎动物感染模型确定这些选定菌株的毒力属性。 这项研究的短期益处将有助于对念珠菌与各种细菌相互作用的过程提供基本的了解。了解什么样的遗传决定因素是重要的真菌-细菌的相互作用将是有用的，利用新的细菌分子的抗真菌发展。在鉴定新的抗真菌或抗生素化合物的许多条件下，科学家倾向于探索土壤和水的环境以及新化合物的其他生态位，但没有研究人体内的微生物。在我们目前对人类微生物组及其组织如何影响人类健康的兴趣的情况下，这可能为直接靶向C的新型化合物打开一扇新的大门。白色念珠菌生长，而不破坏其他微生物群落， 维持人体内环境的稳定从长远来看，有潜力开发新的抗微生物剂，可单独使用或与目前的治疗真菌感染的治疗方法联合使用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Candida species are considered to be one of the leading causes of nosocomial acquired infections within critical care units, as well as afflicting immune suppressed individuals such as HIV positive patients. Candida utilizes a variety of virulence factors for colonization and infection of the host. Candida species are opportunistic fungi, which normally do not cause infection in healthy individuals. Oftentimes, infection with Candida in the critical care ward is associated with antimicrobial treatment of a current bacterial infection. This presentation of Candida is likely due to inadvertent killing of the normal flora in the body allowing for growth of the fungus. Polymicrobial infections involving C. albicans affect almost 27% of patients. It has recently been demonstrated that C. albicans and bacteria can affect each other's biological activities through the recognition of quorum sensing molecules secreted by both the bacteria and C. albicans. The primary hypothesis of this study is that Candida albicans harbors several genetic determinants that allow it to sense and respond to the majority of bacterial species with which it interact within the host environment. In this study we will investigate ten genes from C. albicans that play a role in Candida-bacterial interactions we identified from previous screen of a mutant library of 18,000 C. albicans strains for the ability t filament in the presence of select bacteria. As these genetic mutants were identified by co-cultivation in the presence of bacteria, we have also chosen to test the candidate strains against a panel of known bacterial secreted molecules in order to categorize the appropriate response pathway. We will also determine the temporal expression of the selected genes when Candida is exposed to bacteria. Mutant strains will be grown in the presence or absence of bacteria to determine if gene expression is constitutive or induced by the presence of bacteria. We will also ascertain the virulence attributes of these selected strains using an invertebrate infection model. The short term benefits from this study will help in providing a basic understanding of the process by which Candida interacts with various bacterial species. Understanding what genetic determinants are important for Candida-bacterial interactions will be useful for exploiting novel bacterial molecules for antifungal development. Under many conditions for identifying new antifungal or antibiotic compounds, scientists tend to explore the environments of the soil and water and other ecological niches for new compounds, but have not looked at the microbes within the human body. In our case with the current interest in the human microbiome and how its organization affects human health, this could open a new door for novel compounds that could directly target C. albicans growth without disrupting other microflora that are necessary for maintaining homeostasis with the human host. In the long-term, there is the potential for development of novel antimicrobial agents that could be used either alone or in combination with current therapies for treatment of fungal infections.