Fungal Skn7 stress responses and their relationship to virulence

The histidine kinase-based phosphorelay has emerged as a common strategy among bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and plants for triggering important stress responses and interpreting developmental cues in response to environmental as well as chemical, nutritional, and hormone signals. The absence of this type of signaling mechanism in animals makes the so-called "two-component" pathway an attractive target for development of antimicrobial agents. The best-studied eukaryotic example of a two-component pathway is the SLN1 pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which responds to turgor and other physical properties associated with the fungal cell wall. One of the two phosphoreceiver proteins known as response regulators in this pathway is Skn7, a highly conserved stress-responsive transcription factor with a subset of activities that are dependent on SLN1 pathway phosphorylation and another subset that are independent. Interest in Skn7as a determinant in fungal virulence stems primarily from its well-established role in the oxidative stress response; however, the involvement of Skn7 in maintenance of cell wall integrity may also be relevant. Since the cell wall is crucial for fungal survival, structural and biosynthetic proteins affecting wall composition and signaling pathways that respond to wall stress are likely to play key roles in virulence. Here we review the molecular and phenotypic characteristics of different fungal Skn7 proteins and consider how each of these properties may contribute to fungal virulence.