Candida albicans is the most common opportunistic fungal pathogen, which switches its morphology from single-cell yeast to filament through the various signaling pathways responding to diverse environmental cues. Various transcriptional factors such as Nrg1, Efg1, Brg1, Ssn6, and Tup1 are the key components of these signaling pathways. Since C. albicans can regulate its transcriptional gene expressions using common eukaryotic regulatory systems, its morphological transition by these signaling pathways could be linked to the epigenetic regulation by chromatin structure modifiers. Histone proteins, which are critical components of eukaryotic chromatin structure, can regulate the eukaryotic chromatin structure through their own modifications such as acetylation, methylation, phosphorylation and ubiquitylation. Recent studies revealed that various histone modifications, especially histone acetylation and deacetylation, participate in morphological transition of C. albicans collaborating with well-known transcription factors in the signaling pathways. Here, we review recent studies about chromatin-mediated morphological transition of C. albicans focusing on the interaction between transcription factors in the signaling pathways and histone deacetylases.
Keywords: Candida albicans; chromatin structure; histone deacetylases (HDACs); morphological transition; transcription factor.