[Evaluation of targets for antifungal drugs using a system to regulate gene expression]

A system to regulate gene expression is a convenient tool to explore gene function(s) not only in prokaryote but also in eukaryote. Such manipulation tools are scarce in the medical mycology field due to its complexity and diploidity. Although systems to regulate gene expression have been constructed, most of them are restricted in their application to particular culture conditions due to the nature of the promoter used. This motivated us to establish a new regulatable expression system that can function regardless of culture conditions, including in a host. In this review, a new system using tetracycline or its derivative as a molecular switch is introduced, which can function in several culture conditions, and in a host. We also show that the system can be applied to the selection of antifungal drug targets, which is the first step in a target-based strategy for drug discovery.