Finding the Sweet Spot: How Human Fungal Pathogens Acquire and Turn the Sugar Inositol against Their Hosts

ABSTRACT Inositol is an essential nutrient with important structural and signaling functions in eukaryotes. Its role in microbial pathogenesis has been reported in fungi, protozoans, and eubacteria. In a recent article, Porollo et al. [mBio 5(6):e01834-14, 2014, doi:10.1128/mBio.01834-14] demonstrat...

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Autor principal:	Chaoyang Xue
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Society for Microbiology 2015
Materias:	Microbiology QR1-502
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/86e7c2d6ae6143bea294e563c6573ad5
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:86e7c2d6ae6143bea294e563c6573ad52021-11-15T15:41:34ZFinding the Sweet Spot: How Human Fungal Pathogens Acquire and Turn the Sugar Inositol against Their Hosts10.1128/mBio.00109-152150-7511https://doaj.org/article/86e7c2d6ae6143bea294e563c6573ad52015-05-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mBio.00109-15https://doaj.org/toc/2150-7511ABSTRACT Inositol is an essential nutrient with important structural and signaling functions in eukaryotes. Its role in microbial pathogenesis has been reported in fungi, protozoans, and eubacteria. In a recent article, Porollo et al. [mBio 5(6):e01834-14, 2014, doi:10.1128/mBio.01834-14] demonstrated the importance of inositol metabolism in the development and viability of Pneumocystis species—obligate fungal pathogens that remain unculturable in vitro. To understand their obligate nature, the authors used innovative comparative genomic approaches and discovered that Pneumocystis spp. are inositol auxotrophs due to the lack of inositol biosynthetic enzymes and that inositol insufficiency is a contributing factor preventing fungal growth in vitro. This work is in accord with other studies suggesting that inositol plays a conserved role in microbial pathogenesis. Inositol uptake and metabolism therefore may represent novel antimicrobial drug targets. Using comparative genomics to analyze metabolic pathways offers a powerful tool to gain new insights into nutrient utilization in microbes, especially obligate pathogens.Chaoyang XueAmerican Society for MicrobiologyarticleMicrobiologyQR1-502ENmBio, Vol 6, Iss 2 (2015)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Microbiology QR1-502
spellingShingle	Microbiology QR1-502 Chaoyang Xue Finding the Sweet Spot: How Human Fungal Pathogens Acquire and Turn the Sugar Inositol against Their Hosts
description	ABSTRACT Inositol is an essential nutrient with important structural and signaling functions in eukaryotes. Its role in microbial pathogenesis has been reported in fungi, protozoans, and eubacteria. In a recent article, Porollo et al. [mBio 5(6):e01834-14, 2014, doi:10.1128/mBio.01834-14] demonstrated the importance of inositol metabolism in the development and viability of Pneumocystis species—obligate fungal pathogens that remain unculturable in vitro. To understand their obligate nature, the authors used innovative comparative genomic approaches and discovered that Pneumocystis spp. are inositol auxotrophs due to the lack of inositol biosynthetic enzymes and that inositol insufficiency is a contributing factor preventing fungal growth in vitro. This work is in accord with other studies suggesting that inositol plays a conserved role in microbial pathogenesis. Inositol uptake and metabolism therefore may represent novel antimicrobial drug targets. Using comparative genomics to analyze metabolic pathways offers a powerful tool to gain new insights into nutrient utilization in microbes, especially obligate pathogens.
format	article
author	Chaoyang Xue
author_facet	Chaoyang Xue
author_sort	Chaoyang Xue
title	Finding the Sweet Spot: How Human Fungal Pathogens Acquire and Turn the Sugar Inositol against Their Hosts
title_short	Finding the Sweet Spot: How Human Fungal Pathogens Acquire and Turn the Sugar Inositol against Their Hosts
title_full	Finding the Sweet Spot: How Human Fungal Pathogens Acquire and Turn the Sugar Inositol against Their Hosts
title_fullStr	Finding the Sweet Spot: How Human Fungal Pathogens Acquire and Turn the Sugar Inositol against Their Hosts
title_full_unstemmed	Finding the Sweet Spot: How Human Fungal Pathogens Acquire and Turn the Sugar Inositol against Their Hosts
title_sort	finding the sweet spot: how human fungal pathogens acquire and turn the sugar inositol against their hosts
publisher	American Society for Microbiology
publishDate	2015
url	https://doaj.org/article/86e7c2d6ae6143bea294e563c6573ad5
work_keys_str_mv	AT chaoyangxue findingthesweetspothowhumanfungalpathogensacquireandturnthesugarinositolagainsttheirhosts
_version_	1718427652351590400

Finding the Sweet Spot: How Human Fungal Pathogens Acquire and Turn the Sugar Inositol against Their Hosts

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