Taxonomic group: fungi / Basidiomycota
(Phylum: Basidiomycota)
Organ / tissue: capsuleAssociated disease: infection due to Cryptococcus neoformans [ICD11:
XN3EH 
]
NCBI PubMed ID: 29436899Publication DOI: 10.1080/21505594.2018.1431087Journal NLM ID: 101531386Publisher: Philadelphia, PA: Taylor & Francis
Institutions: Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA
The capsule of Cryptococcus neoformans is its dominant virulence factor and plays a key role in the biology of this fungus. In this essay, we focus on the capsule as a cellular structure and note the limitations inherent in the current methodologies available for its study. Given that no single method can provide the structure of the capsule, our notions of what is the cryptococcal capsule must be arrived at by synthesizing information gathered from very different methodological approaches including microscopy, polysaccharide chemistry and physical chemistry of macromolecules. The emerging picture is one of a carefully regulated dynamic structure that is constantly rearranged as a response to environmental stimulation and cellular replication. In the environment, the capsule protects the fungus against desiccation and phagocytic predators. In animal hosts the capsule functions in both offensive and defensive modes, such that it interferes with immune responses while providing the fungal cell with a defensive shield that is both antiphagocytic and capable of absorbing microbicidal oxidative bursts from phagocytic cells. Finally, we delineate a set of unsolved problems in the cryptococcal capsule field that could provide fertile ground for future investigations.
capsule, Cryptococcus neoformans, galactoxylomannan, glucoxylomannan
Structure type: suggested polymer biological repeating unit
Location inside paper: Fig. 3, C, MOTIF 6
Compound class: polysaccharide, glucuronoxylomannan
Contained glycoepitopes: IEDB_115136,IEDB_115576,IEDB_130701,IEDB_140116,IEDB_140630,IEDB_144983,IEDB_152206,IEDB_164174,IEDB_423153,IEDB_76933,IEDB_983930,SB_197,SB_44,SB_67,SB_72
Related record ID(s): 49968, 49969, 49970, 49971, 49972
NCBI Taxonomy refs (TaxIDs): 5207Reference(s) to other database(s): GTC:G38671OW
Show glycosyltransferases
There is only one chemically distinct structure:
Found 
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