Regulatory networks that mediate host-pathogen interactions and virulence in the fungal pathogen Candida albicans
Event Details
- Date:
- Wednesday, 21 May 2014
- Time:
- 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
- Event category(s):
Event Contact
- Name:
- Dr Benjamin Schulz
- Phone:
- 54875
- Email:
- b.schulz@uq.edu.au
- Org. Unit:
- Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences
Event Description
- Full Description:
- Dr Ana Traven
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University
Regulatory networks that mediate host-pathogen interactions and virulence in the fungal pathogen Candida albicans
The yeast Candida albicans is a leading cause of hospital-related infections, with mortality from systemic disease reaching 40-50%. The ability of C. albicans to change cellular morphology and grow drug-resistant biofilms are key virulence attributes. Our work focuses on gene regulators that control these developmental transitions. We have identified that the Mediator complex, a central eukaryotic transcriptional regulator, has complex roles in morphogenesis and cell surface structure in C. albicans, with the different subunits having distinct roles in these pathways. We have used Mediator mutants of C. albicans to understand how the fungus uses hyphal growth to kill macrophages after phagocytosis and evade the innate immune response. We show that hyphal structures activate a programmed host cell death pathway, which the fungus then hijacks for escaping. Hyphal morphology is not sufficient for triggering macrophage death, proper surface architecture of the filaments is important as well. This is the first mechanistic description of the process by which C. albicans escapes from macrophages, and it challenges a long-standing model that fungal hyphae “simply” pierce the macrophages by virtue of their highly polarized growth.
Wednesday May 21st, 12-1 pm
AIBN seminar room (Building 75), St Lucia
Ana Traven is a Research fellow and Lab Head in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Monash University in Melbourne. Ana obtained her PhD from the University of Zagreb, Croatia in 2002, for her work on the regulation of gene transcription. In 2003, she moved to the St. Vincent’s Institute in Melbourne as a postdoctoral fellow to study posttranscriptional gene control in the context of DNA damage responses. After a short postdoc at Columbia University in New York, in 2009 Ana started her own research group at Monash University. For her postdoctoral work, Ana was supported by the Peter Doherty Fellowship from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC) and the Short-Term Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Human Frontier Science Program Organization (HFSPO).
As a PhD student and postdoctoral fellow, Ana used the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model system. More recently, her research moved into the field of human fungal pathogens, focusing on the yeast Candida albicans. Ana’s work focuses on two broad areas: the interface between metabolic regulation, drug susceptibility and virulence, and regulation of fungal morphogenesis. Her lab identified mitochondrial function as an important contributor to cell wall integrity, echinocandin susceptibility and virulence in C. albicans (Mol Microbiol 2011, Eukaryot Cell 2012), and went on to demonstrate that mechanisms of mitochondrial biogenesis linked to the ability to use a key carbon source for the pathogen C. albicans – lactate, have been rewired during fungal evolution (PNAS 2012). In related work, Ana’s lab has identified new factors important for fungal biofilm formation and hyphal morphogenesis (PLoS Genetics 2012, Genetics 2012), and used these factors to understand host-pathogen interactions and immune evasion by C. albicans (mBio 2014). For research translation, her group is working closely with the CSIRO and the Australian biotech company Hexima Ltd, to characterize new antifungal compounds (Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy 2013, Biomacromolecules 2013, Molecular Microbiology 2014). The work in the Traven lab is supported by grants from the NH&MRC, the ARC, and Monash University funding.
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