Beyond ergosterol: linking pH to antifungal mechanisms
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Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Small-Scale Plasma Membrane Preparation for the Analysis of Candida albicans Cdr1-mGFPHis
Published on: June 13, 2021
1Department of Physiology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Abstract:
Many antifungal drugs including the highly successful azoles target the fungal-specific sterol, ergosterol, yet the molecular identity of cellular pathways mediating antifungal activity remained obscure. A recent study on the requirement of ergosterol in vacuolar H+-ATPase (V-ATPase) function uncovered a critical role for ion homeostasis downstream of azole inhibition of ergosterol biosynthesis. Here we review the functional link between regulation of V-ATPase by fungal membrane lipid components and discuss contributions of V-ATPase function to pathogenicity. The importance of pH homeostasis in virulence highlights its potential as target in antifungal chemotherapy.
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