TOP2 gene is involved in the pathogenicity of Candida albicans

Abstract

Candida albicans is a common cause of morbidity in hospitalized and immunosuppressed patients. There are still many unknown genes involved in the virulence of C. albicans. The present study aims to examine the effect of TOP2 gene in candidal virulence, including hyphal growth, phospholipase and proteinase activity. Targeted gene disruption of both TOP2 alleles in a wild-type strain of C. albicans produced hyphae more efficiently. TOP2 disruption also increased phospholipase and proteinase activities, and enhanced virulence as assessed by host tissue colonization in systemic infection model. The result of reverse transcription PCR displayed that PLB1 and SAP4 expressions of top2 mutants was significantly upregulated when compared with the isogenic parental strain. Together, these results indicated that TOP2 gene was involved in candidal pathogenicity, and the major reasons for the comparatively high virulence of null mutants were the higher capacity to produce hyphae and the increased phospholipase and proteinase activities, at least in part.