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Updated: Aug 16, 2025

Biolistic Transformation of a Fluorescent Tagged Gene into the Opportunistic Fungal Pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans
Published on: March 19, 2015
Multiple F-Box Proteins Collectively Regulate Cell Development and Pathogenesis in the Human Pathogen Cryptococcus
Chengjun Cao1, Yina Wang1, Samantha L Avina1
1Public Health Research Institute, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ 07103, USA.
Abstract:
The ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) mediates intracellular proteins degradation that influences various cellular functions in eukaryotic cells. The UPS is also involved in the development and virulence of pathogenic fungi. F-box proteins, which are part of the SCF (Skp1-Cullin-F-box protein) ligase, are a key component of UPS and are essential for the recognition of specific substrates. In this study, we identified 20 F-box proteins in C. neoformans and obtained deletion mutants for 19 of them. A comprehensive phenotypic analysis of these mutants revealed the diverse function of F-box proteins in stress response, cell size regulation, sexual reproduction, antifungal drug resistance, and fungal virulence in C. neoformans. The importance of three F-box proteins: Fbp4, Fbp8, and Fbp11, in these cellular functions were characterized in detail. This study provides an overall view of the F-box gene family in C. neoformans, which will lead to a better understanding of the function of fungal SCF E3 ligase-mediated UPS in fungal development and pathogenesis.
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