Analysis of Trichophyton rubrum gene expression in response to cytotoxic drugs

Suppressive subtractive hybridization was used to isolate transcripts specifically upregulated during Trichophyton rubrum exposure to acriflavin, fluconazole, griseofulvin, terbinafine or undecanoic acid. Macro-array dot-blot and sequencing of 132 clones, which correspond to genes differentially expressed after exposition of T. rubrum to at least one of these cytotoxic drugs, revealed 39 unique genes. Of these, 32 have not been previously described in T. rubrum, representing an increase in the number of T. rubrum genes that have been identified. The upregulation of the novel genes encoding a retrotransposon element, a carboxylic ester hydrolase, a copper resistance-associated P-type ATPase, a DNA mismatch repair protein and a NIMA (never in mitosis A) interactive protein was confirmed by Northern blot.