Nanostructured surface induced transcriptome response in Candida albicans
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Lakshmi Gayitri Chivukula (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Dennis LaJeunesse
Abstract: Candida albicans (C. albicans) is an opportunistic fungal pathogen, which causes superficial to systemic infections in immunocompromised patients. This pathogen produces various responses under different environmental/mechanical conditions that leads to the development of one of the virulence factors such as biofilm formation. Among the existing strategies to control microbial biofilm formation, the microbial rupture upon interaction with nanostructure surfaces (NSS) has gained lot of interest. However, the genetic mechanism behind the rupture is underexplored. Therefore, my research focuses on investigating the genetic behavior of human fungal pathogen C. albicans during the interaction with the natural nanostructured surfaces using next generation sequencing. Our results showed that this interaction influences the major physiological responses in C. albicans such as adhesion, ergosterol biosynthesis, and DNA damage response. Besides, ergosterol biosynthetic pathway is the target of major antifungal drugs. Therefore, we further validated the changes in ergosterol biosynthesis pathway by treating the C. albicans on the NSS with one of major classes of antifungal drugs, amphotericin B. The cells on the NSS became highly sensitized to antifungals at subthreshold concentrations in comparison with controls. This analysis confirms that NSS makes C. albicans highly susceptible to antifungal drugs. These findings provide a potential molecular approach to design efficient antimicrobial surfaces to control biofilm formation in immunocompromised patients. Keywords: Microbial rupture, nanostructured surface, C. albicans, ergosterol biosynthesis, DNA damage, antifungal drugs
Nanostructured surface induced transcriptome response in Candida albicans
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Created on 5/1/2022
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Dissertation
- Language: English
- Date: 2022
- Keywords
- Microbial rupture, Nanostructured surface, C. albicans, Ergosterol biosynthesis, DNA damage, Antifungal drugs
- Subjects
- Nanostructured materials
- Candida albicans
- Antifungal agents
- Ergosterol
- DNA damage