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Application of Membrane and Cell Wall Selective Fluorescent Dyes for Live-Cell Imaging of Filamentous Fungi
Published on: November 28, 2019
GPI Anchored Proteins in Aspergillus fumigatus and Cell Wall Morphogenesis
Marketa Samalova1, Paul Carr2, Mike Bromley2
1Aspergillus Unit, Institut Pasteur, 25 Rue Du Docteur Roux, 75015, Paris, France.
Abstract:
Glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchored proteins are a class of proteins attached to the extracellular leaflet of the plasma membrane via a post-translational modification, the glycolipid anchor. GPI anchored proteins are expressed in all eukaryotes, from fungi to plants and animals. They display very diverse functions ranging from enzymatic activity, signaling, cell adhesion, cell wall metabolism, and immune response. In this review, we investigated for the first time an exhaustive list of all the GPI anchored proteins present in the Aspergillus fumigatus genome. An A. fumigatus mutant library of all the genes that encode in silico identified GPI anchored proteins has been constructed and the phenotypic analysis of all these mutants has been characterized including their growth, conidial viability or morphology, adhesion and the ability to form biofilms. We showed the presence of different fungal categories of GPI anchored proteins in the A. fumigatus genome associated to their role in cell wall remodeling, adhesion, and biofilm formation.
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