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Full-Text Articles in Molecular Biology
Cryptococcus Neoformans Melanization Incorporates Multiple Catecholamines To Produce Polytypic Melanin, Rosanna P. Baker, Christine Chrissian, Ruth E. Stark, Arturo Casadevall
Cryptococcus Neoformans Melanization Incorporates Multiple Catecholamines To Produce Polytypic Melanin, Rosanna P. Baker, Christine Chrissian, Ruth E. Stark, Arturo Casadevall
Publications and Research
Melanin is a major virulence factor in pathogenic fungi that enhances the ability of fungal cells to resist immune clearance. Cryptococcus neoformans is an important human pathogenic fungus that synthesizes melanin from exogenous tissue catecholamine precursors during infection, but the type of melanin made in cryptococcal meningoencephalitis is unknown. We analyzed the efficacy of various catecholamines found in brain tissue in supporting melanization using animal brain tissue and synthetic catecholamine mixtures reflecting brain tissue proportions. Solid-state NMR spectra of the melanin pigment produced from such mixtures yielded more melanin than expected if only the preferred constituent dopamine had been incorporated, …
Unconventional Constituents And Shared Molecular Architecture Of The Melanized Cell Wall Of C. Neoformans And Spore Wall Of S. Cerevisiae, Christine Chrissian, Coney Pei-Chin Lin, Emma Camacho, Arturo Casadevall, Aaron M. Neiman, Ruth E. Stark
Unconventional Constituents And Shared Molecular Architecture Of The Melanized Cell Wall Of C. Neoformans And Spore Wall Of S. Cerevisiae, Christine Chrissian, Coney Pei-Chin Lin, Emma Camacho, Arturo Casadevall, Aaron M. Neiman, Ruth E. Stark
Publications and Research
The fungal cell wall serves as the interface between the cell and the environment. Fungal cell walls are composed largely of polysaccharides, primarily glucans and chitin, though in many fungi stress-resistant cell types elaborate additional cell wall structures. Here, we use solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to compare the architecture of cell wall fractions isolated from Saccharomyces cerevisiae spores and Cryptococcus neoformans melanized cells. The specialized cell walls of these two divergent fungi are highly similar in composition. Both use chitosan, the deacetylated derivative of chitin, as a scaffold on which a polyaromatic polymer, dityrosine and melanin, respectively, is assembled. …