AUTHOR=Romão Daniela , Cavalheiro Mafalda , Mil-Homens Dalila , Santos Rui , Pais Pedro , Costa Catarina , Takahashi-Nakaguchi Azusa , Fialho Arsénio M. , Chibana Hiroji , Teixeira Miguel C. 

TITLE=A New Determinant of Candida glabrata Virulence: The Acetate Exporter CgDtr1

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

VOLUME=7

YEAR=2017

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-and-infection-microbiology/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2017.00473

DOI=10.3389/fcimb.2017.00473

ISSN=2235-2988

ABSTRACT=<p>Persistence and virulence of <italic>Candida glabrata</italic> infections are multifactorial phenomena, whose understanding is crucial to design more suitable therapeutic strategies. In this study, the putative multidrug transporter CgDtr1, encoded by ORF <italic>CAGL0M06281g</italic>, is identified as a determinant of <italic>C. glabrata</italic> virulence in the infection model <italic>Galleria mellonella</italic>. <italic>CgDTR1</italic> deletion is shown to decrease the ability to kill <italic>G. mellonella</italic> larvae by decreasing <italic>C. glabrata</italic> ability to proliferate in <italic>G. mellonella</italic> hemolymph, and to tolerate the action of hemocytes. The possible role of CgDtr1 in the resistance to several stress factors that underlie death induced by phagocytosis was assessed. <italic>CgDTR1</italic> was found to confer resistance to oxidative and acetic acid stress. Consistently, CgDtr1 was found to be a plasma membrane acetic acid exporter, relieving the stress induced upon <italic>C. glabrata</italic> cells within hemocytes, and thus enabling increased proliferation and virulence against <italic>G. mellonella</italic> larvae.</p>