You are what you secrete: extracellular proteins and virulence in Cryptococcus
Leona T Campbell A , Matthew P Padula B , Elizabeth Harry B and Dee A Carter A CA School of Molecular Bioscience, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
B iThree Institute, University of Technology, Sydney, NSW, Australia
C Corresponding author. Tel: +61 2 9351 5383, Email: dee.carter@sydney.edu.au
Microbiology Australia 36(2) 93-95 https://doi.org/10.1071/MA15030
Published: 1 May 2015
Abstract
Fungal organisms secrete a wide range of biomolecules, including degradative enzymes that are essential for nutrition, toxins, effectors and secondary compounds that modulate interactions with host animals and plants, and a variety of signaling and stress-related proteins. As these are likely to be key determinants of virulence and may also be useful diagnostic and therapeutic targets, we investigated the secretome of different strains of the fungal pathogen Cryptococcus. Virulent strains secreted predominantly hydrolytic and proteolytic enzymes, while the least virulent strain secreted a range of additional non-degradative proteins including many that lacked secretion signals, some that appear to be ‘moonlighting’, and a number that are known to be allergenic. It appears that in Cryptococcus, the secretome may influence virulence both through the presence of harmful enzymes and through the absence of proteins that alert the host defence mechanisms.
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