Heterotrimeric G-alpha subunits Gpa11 and Gpa12 define a transduction pathway that control spore size and virulence in Mucor circinelloides

PLoS One. 2019 Dec 30;14(12):e0226682. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0226682. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Mucor circinelloides is one of the causal agents of mucormycosis, an emerging and high mortality rate fungal infection produced by asexual spores (sporangiospores) of fungi that belong to the order Mucorales. M. circinelloides has served as a model genetic system to understand the virulence mechanism of this infection. Although the G-protein signaling cascade plays crucial roles in virulence in many pathogenic fungi, its roles in Mucorales are yet to be elucidated. Previous study found that sporangiospore size and calcineurin are related to the virulence in Mucor, in which larger spores are more virulent in an animal mucormycosis model and loss of a calcineurin A catalytic subunit CnaA results in larger spore production and virulent phenotype. The M. circinelloides genome is known to harbor twelve gpa (gpa1 to gpa12) encoding G-protein alpha subunits and the transcripts of the gpa11 and gpa12 comprise nearly 72% of all twelve gpa genes transcript in spores. In this study we demonstrated that loss of function of Gpa11 and Gpa12 led to larger spore size associated with reduced activation of the calcineurin pathway. Interestingly, we found lower levels of the cnaA mRNAs in sporangiospores from the Δgpa12 and double Δgpa11/Δgpa12 mutant strains compared to wild-type and the ΔcnaA mutant had significantly lower gpa11 and gpa12 mRNA levels compared to wild-type. However, in contrast to the high virulence showed by the large spores of ΔcnaA, the spores from Δgpa11/Δgpa12 were avirulent and produced lower tissue invasion and cellular damage, suggesting that the gpa11 and gpa12 define a signal pathway with two branches. One of the branches controls spore size through regulation of calcineurin pathway, whereas virulences is controlled by an independent pathway. This virulence-related regulatory pathway could control the expression of genes involved in cellular responses important for virulence, since sporangiospores of Δgpa11/Δgpa12 were less resistant to oxidative stress and phagocytosis by macrophages than the ΔcnaA and wild-type strains. The characterization of this pathway could contribute to decipher the signals and mechanism used by Mucorales to produce mucormycosis.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Calcineurin / physiology
  • Fungal Proteins
  • GTP-Binding Protein alpha Subunits, G12-G13 / physiology*
  • GTP-Binding Protein alpha Subunits, Gq-G11 / physiology*
  • Genes, Fungal
  • Humans
  • Mucor / pathogenicity
  • Mucor / physiology*
  • Mucormycosis / etiology
  • Mucormycosis / microbiology
  • Signal Transduction
  • Spores, Fungal / cytology*
  • Virulence
  • Virus Physiological Phenomena

Substances

  • Fungal Proteins
  • Calcineurin
  • GTP-Binding Protein alpha Subunits, G12-G13
  • GTP-Binding Protein alpha Subunits, Gq-G11

Grants and funding

V M-C, MI R-D Coordinación de la Investigación Científica, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, México (2.6, 2.35). https://www.cic.umich.mx V M-C, MI R-D, J C-G Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, México (CONACYT; 181747, 167071, and 256119). https://www.conacyt.gob.mx V G Fundación Séneca-Agencia de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Región de Murcia, Spain (19339/PI/14). https://www.fseneca.es The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.