Âé¶¹ÒùÔº


Clues to the innate drug resistance of a cocoa-fermenting pathogen

Clues to the innate drug resistance of a cocoa-fermenting pathogen
Cocoa farmer David Kebu Jnr holding the finished product, dried cocoa beans ready for export. Credit: Irene Scott/AusAID [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

At first glance, the yeast Candida krusei seems as innocuous as microbes come: it's used for fermenting cocoa beans and gives chocolate its pleasant aroma. But it's increasingly found as a pathogen in immunocompromised patients—and C. krusei infections aren't always easy to cure. This yeast is naturally resistant to fluconazole, a first-line antifungal that's vital not just for treating many fungal infections but also for preventing them in susceptible populations. In the September issue of G3, Cuomo et al. unveil the first whole-genome sequence of a clinical sample of C. krusei, providing leads on genes that may be important for the species' fluconazole resistance.

Some draft assemblies of the C. krusei genome had been produced prior to these researchers' work, but they were fragmented, a problem caused by a large amount of heterozygosity. The key to their success was to generate long sequencing reads, producing an assembly with not many more scaffolds than C. krusei has chromosomes.

With their new draft in hand, Brand et al. searched the C. kruseigenome for genes that are associated with pathogenesis in the more familiar Candida albicans—the cause of thrush, vaginal yeast infections, and sometimes potentially lethal systemic infections. C. krusei, they found, has few copies of gene families associated with pathogenesis in C. albicans, including oligopeptide transporters, aspartyl proteases, and phospholipase B genes. Candida species that often cause disease usually have expansions in these , so given that C. krusei is rarely pathogenic, this finding makes sense.

When they focused on genes involved in drug resistance, the group found that C. krusei differs from C. albicans; many of the sites that are often mutated in the target of azole drugs in resistant C. albicans are not mutated in C. krusei. This implies the cocoa-fermenting yeast's natural resistance to fluconazole arises from a different mechanism than the one that commonly allows C. albicans to resist azole drugs.

The researchers also didn't find the gene MDR1, which encodes a drug transporter often responsible for resistance to multiple drugs. They did, however, find copies of genes related to CDR1, CDR2, and few others that encode other transporters associated with resistance—although the way they function in C. krusei is unknown. These could be a starting point for discovering the mechanisms behind antifungal in C. krusei, potentially leading to better treatments and preventive measures for highly vulnerable populations.

More information: Christina A. Cuomo et al. Whole Genome Sequence of the Heterozygous Clinical Isolate Candida krusei 81-B-5, G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics (2017).

Citation: Clues to the innate drug resistance of a cocoa-fermenting pathogen (2017, October 17) retrieved 28 May 2025 from /news/2017-10-clues-innate-drug-resistance-cocoa-fermenting.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

Explore further

CRISPR-Cas editing of C. albicans holds promise for overcoming deadly fungal infections

2 shares

Feedback to editors