Taxonomic group: fungi / Basidiomycota
(Phylum: Basidiomycota)
Organ / tissue: capsuleAssociated disease: infection due to Cryptococcus neoformans [ICD11:
XN3EH 
]
NCBI PubMed ID: 30060601Publication DOI: 10.3390/jof4030088Journal NLM ID: 101671827Publisher: Basel, Switzerland: MDPI AG
Correspondence: Camacho E <ecamach2
jhu.edu>; Casadevall A <acasade1
jhu.edu>
Institutions: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA
Several species in the genus Cryptococcus are facultative intracellular pathogens capable of causing disease associated with high mortality and morbidity in humans. These fungi interact with other organisms in the soil, and these interactions may contribute to the development of adaptation mechanisms that function in virulence by promoting fungal survival in animal hosts. Fungal adhesion molecules, also known as adhesins, have been classically considered as cell-surface or secreted proteins that play critical roles in microbial pathogenesis or in biofilm formation as structural components. Pathogenic Cryptococcus spp. differ from other pathogenic yeasts in having a polysaccharide capsule that covers the cell wall surface and precludes interactions of those structures with host cell receptors. Hence, pathogenic Cryptococcus spp. use unconventional tools for surface attachment. In this essay, we review the unique traits and mechanisms favoring adhesion of Cryptococcus spp. to biotic and abiotic surfaces. Knowledge of the traits that mediate adherence could be exploited in the development of therapeutic, biomedical, and/or industrial products.
Pathogenesis, adherence, environment, Cryptococcus
Structure type: structural motif or average structure
Location inside paper: p. 3, paragraph 1, GXM
Compound class: O-polysaccharide, glucuronoxylomannan
Contained glycoepitopes: IEDB_114701,IEDB_115136,IEDB_115576,IEDB_130701,IEDB_140116,IEDB_140630,IEDB_144983,IEDB_145668,IEDB_152206,IEDB_164174,IEDB_167188,IEDB_174332,IEDB_2270799,IEDB_423153,IEDB_76933,IEDB_983930,SB_197,SB_44,SB_67,SB_72
Biological activity: associated with the ability to adhere on abiotic and biotic surfaces; essential for establishment of exopolymeric matrix(EPM) and for biofilm formation; important in defence from predators; during infection inhibits the phagocytosis by mechanisms: acting as a physical barrier that blocks recognition of phagocytic receptors with epitopes of the cell wall; binding to CD14 and toll-like receptor 2 and 4, which causes NF-κB to be translocated to the nucleus inhibiting production of TNF-α which, in turn, decreases macrophage activation; inducing expression of Fas ligand on macrophage surfaces, which in turn promotes the apoptosis of T cells
Related record ID(s): 48622
NCBI Taxonomy refs (TaxIDs): 5207,
37769Reference(s) to other database(s): GTC:G39597XD
Show glycosyltransferases
There is only one chemically distinct structure:
Found 
report error