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Infection and Immunity, May 1999, p. 2357-2365, Vol. 67, No. 5
Research Service, McGuire Veterans Affairs
Medical Center, Richmond, Virginia 23249, and Department of Internal
Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia
23298-0049
Received 29 July 1998/Returned for modification 29 August
1998/Accepted 29 January 1999
Cryptococcus neoformans is a pathogenic yeast that
causes meningitis in immunocompromised patients. Because iron
acquisition is critical for growth of a pathogen in a host, we studied
the regulation of the ferric reductase and ferrous uptake system of this organism. We isolated 18 mutants, representing four independent loci, with dysregulated ferric reductase. The mutant strains had >10-fold higher than wild-type WT reductase activity in the presence of iron. Two of the strains also had >7-fold higher than WT iron uptake in the presence of iron but were not markedly iron sensitive. Both were sensitive to the oxidative stresses associated with superoxide and hydrogen peroxide. One strain exhibited only 23% of the
WT level of iron uptake in the absence of iron and grew poorly without
iron supplementation of the medium, phenotypes consistent with an iron
transport deficiency; it was sensitive to superoxide but not to
hydrogen peroxide. The fourth strain had high reductase activity but
normal iron uptake; it was not very sensitive to oxidative stress. We
also demonstrated that the ferric reductase was regulated by copper and
could act as a cupric reductase. Sensitivity to oxidants may be related
to iron acquisition by a variety of mechanisms and may model the interaction of the yeast with the immune system.
0019-9567/99/$04.00+0
Genetic and Physiologic Characterization of
Ferric/Cupric Reductase Constitutive Mutants of
Cryptococcus neoformans
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Research
Service, Box 151, McGuire VAMC, 1201 Broad Rock Blvd., Richmond, VA
23249. Phone: (804) 675-5000, ext. 3638. Fax: (804) 675-5359. E-mail: nyhus.karin_j{at}richmond.va.gov.
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