Taxonomic group: fungi / Ascomycota
(Phylum: Ascomycota)
NCBI PubMed ID: 16423067Publication DOI: 10.1111/j.1567-1364.2005.00017.xJournal NLM ID: 101085384Publisher: Oxford University Press
Correspondence: Ruiz-Herrera J <jruiz
ira.cinvestav.mx>
Institutions: Departamento de Ingeniería Genética, Unidad Irapuato, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN, Irapuato, Mexico, Departament de Microbiología i Ecología, Facultat de Farmacia, Universitat de València, Burjassot, Spain
Candida albicans is one of the most important opportunistic pathogenic fungi. Weakening of the defense mechanisms of the host, and the ability of the microorganism to adapt to the environment prevailing in the host tissues, turn the fungus from a rather harmless saprophyte into an aggressive pathogen. The disease, candidiasis, ranges from light superficial infections to deep processes that endanger the life of the patient. In the establishment of the pathogenic process, the cell wall of C. albicans (as in other pathogenic fungi) plays an important role. It is the outer structure that protects the fungus from the host defense mechanisms and initiates the direct contact with the host cells by adhering to their surface. The wall also contains important antigens and other compounds that affect the homeostatic equilibrium of the host in favor of the parasite. In this review, we discuss our present knowledge of the structure of the cell wall of C. albicans, the synthesis of its different components, and the mechanisms involved in their organization to give rise to a coherent composite. Furthermore, special emphasis has been placed on two further aspects: how the composition and structure of C. albicans cell wall compare with those from other fungi, and establishing the role of some specific wall components in pathogenesis. From the data presented here, it becomes clear that the composition, structure and synthesis of the cell wall of C. albicans display both subtle and important differences with the wall of different saprophytic fungi, and that some of these differences are of utmost importance for its pathogenic behavior.
Pathogenesis, cell wall, glycoproteins, Glucans, Candida albicans, chitin
Structure type: homopolymer ; n=2000
Location inside paper: p. 17, Fig. 2(a), chitin
Trivial name: chitin
Compound class: cell wall polysaccharide
Contained glycoepitopes: IEDB_135813,IEDB_137340,IEDB_141807,IEDB_151531,IEDB_153212,IEDB_241099,IEDB_423114,IEDB_423150,SB_74,SB_85
Comments, role: minireview; the chitin structure is erroneous in Fig. 2
Related record ID(s): 42088, 49501, 49523, 49564, 49568, 50015, 50302, 50305, 50306, 50309, 50312, 50313, 50316, 50318
NCBI Taxonomy refs (TaxIDs): 5476Reference(s) to other database(s): GTC:G97099AY
Show glycosyltransferases
There is only one chemically distinct structure:
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