AUTHOR=Triana Sergio , de Cock Hans , Ohm Robin A. , Danies Giovanna , Wösten Han A. B. , Restrepo Silvia , González Barrios Andrés F. , Celis Adriana 

TITLE=Lipid Metabolic Versatility in Malassezia spp. Yeasts Studied through Metabolic Modeling

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2017

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2017.01772

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2017.01772

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p><italic>Malassezia</italic> species are lipophilic and lipid-dependent yeasts belonging to the human and animal microbiota. Typically, they are isolated from regions rich in sebaceous glands. They have been associated with dermatological diseases such as seborrheic dermatitis, pityriasis versicolor, atopic dermatitis, and folliculitis. The genomes of <italic>Malassezia globosa</italic>, <italic>Malassezia sympodialis</italic>, and <italic>Malassezia pachydermatis</italic> lack the genes related to fatty acid synthesis. Here, the lipid-synthesis pathways of these species, as well as of <italic>Malassezia furfur</italic>, and of an atypical <italic>M. furfur</italic> variant were reconstructed using genome data and Constraints Based Reconstruction and Analysis. To this end, the genomes of <italic>M. furfur</italic> CBS 1878 and the atypical <italic>M. furfur</italic> 4DS were sequenced and annotated. The resulting Enzyme Commission numbers and predicted reactions were similar to the other <italic>Malassezia</italic> strains despite the differences in their genome size. Proteomic profiling was utilized to validate flux distributions. Flux differences were observed in the production of steroids in <italic>M. furfur</italic> and in the metabolism of butanoate in <italic>M. pachydermatis</italic>. The predictions obtained via these metabolic reconstructions also suggested defects in the assimilation of palmitic acid in <italic>M. globosa</italic>, <italic>M. sympodialis</italic>, <italic>M. pachydermatis</italic>, and the atypical variant of <italic>M. furfur</italic>, but not in <italic>M. furfur.</italic> These predictions were validated via physiological characterization, showing the predictive power of metabolic network reconstructions to provide new clues about the metabolic versatility of <italic>Malassezia</italic>.</p>