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Review
. 2021 Aug 16;7(8):e07805.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07805. eCollection 2021 Aug.

Nutritional immunity: targeting fungal zinc homeostasis

Omran F Alamir  1 , Rita O Oladele  2 , C Ibe  3
Affiliations
Review

Nutritional immunity: targeting fungal zinc homeostasis

Omran F Alamir et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

Transition metals, such as Zn2+, are essential dietary constituents of all biological life, including mammalian hosts and the pathogens that infect them. Therefore, to thrive and cause infection, pathogens must successfully assimilate these elements from the host milieu. Consequently, mammalian immunity has evolved to actively restrict and/or pool metals to toxic concentrations in an effort to attenuate microbial pathogenicity - a process termed nutritional immunity. Despite host-induced Zn2+ nutritional immunity, pathogens such as Candida albicans, are still capable of causing disease and thus must be equipped with robust Zn2+ sensory, uptake and detoxification machinery. This review will discuss the strategies employed by mammalian hosts to limit Zn2+ during infection, and the subsequent fungal interventions that counteract Zn2+ nutritional immunity.

Keywords: Fungi; Nutrient acquisition; Nutritional immunity; Trace metals; Zn; Zn homeostasis.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Regulation of Zn homeostasis in S. cerevisiae and C. albicans.
Figure 2
Figure 2
A schematic representation of Zn2+ scavenging and regulation by S. cerevisiae and C. albicans.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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