Alternative splicing and subfunctionalization generates functional diversity in fungal proteomes.

Alternative splicing is commonly used by the Metazoa to generate more than one protein from a gene. However, such diversification of the proteome by alternative splicing is much rarer in fungi. We describe here an ancient fungal alternative splicing event in which these two proteins are generated from a single alternatively spliced ancestral SKI7/HBS1 gene retained in many species in both the Ascomycota and Basidiomycota.

Candida albicans induces arginine biosynthetic genes in response to host-derived reactive oxygen species.

The interaction of Candida albicans with phagocytes of the host's innate immune system is highly dynamic, and its outcome directly impacts the progression of infection. While the switch to hyphal growth within the macrophage is the most obvious physiological response, much of the genetic response reflects nutrient starvation: translational repression and induction of alternative carbon metabolism. Changes in amino acid metabolism are not seen, with the striking exception of arginine biosynthesis, which is upregulated in its entirety during coculture with macrophages.

The bZIP transcription factor Rca1p is a central regulator of a novel CO₂ sensing pathway in yeast.

Like many organisms the fungal pathogen Candida albicans senses changes in the environmental CO(2) concentration. This response involves two major proteins: adenylyl cyclase and carbonic anhydrase (CA). Here, we demonstrate that CA expression is tightly controlled by the availability of CO(2) and identify the bZIP transcription factor Rca1p as the first CO(2) regulator of CA expression in yeast.

A study of the intermolecular interactions of tolmetin/N-acetyl-L-tyrosine ethyl ester complex.

The formation of tolmetin/N-acetyl-l-tyrosine ethyl ester (ATEE) complex has been reported by means of both theoretical and experimental studies, including quantum mechanical calculations as well as UV-vis absorption, fluorescence and time-resolved spectroscopy measurements. It has been found that the fluorescence of ATEE is quenched due to the formation of a non-fluorescent complex between ATEE and tolmetin in the ground state. The geometrical parameters of ATEE/tolmetin complex have been determined with the use of the DFT method applying the B3LYP correlation-exchange functional and 6-31G(d) basis set.