The alternative oxidase of Candida parapsilosis

Abstract

The yeast Candida parapsilosis is able to grow on a glycerol medium, supplemented with antimycin A, due to a secondary mitochondrial pathway, able to reoxidize specifically cytoplasmic NADH. It is antimycin-A-insensitive, but inhibited by salicylhydroxamic acid and high cyanide concentrations. This pathway involves the participation of a specific pool cytochrome c, reducible by NADH but not by ascorbate/N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine, and a cytochrome 590 named cytochrome a1 in bacteria. In C. parapsilosis, both oxidases aa3 and a1 are implicated in the electron transfer pathway.