Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, Vol.446, No.4, 1073-1078, 2014
The type II Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinases are involved in the regulation of cell wall integrity and oxidative stress response in Candida albicans
The type II Ca2+/Vcalmodulin-dependent protein kinases (CaMKs) are thought to play a vital role in cellular regulation in mammalian cells. Two genes CMK1 and CMK2 in the Candida albicans genome encode homologues of mammalian CaMKs. In this work, we constructed the cmk1 Delta/Delta, the cmk2 Delta/Delta A and the cmk1 Delta/Acink2 Delta/Delta mutants and found that CaMKs function in cell wall integrity (CWI) and cellular redox regulation. Loss of either CMK1 or CMK2, or both resulted in increased expression of CWI-related genes under Calcofluor white (CFW) treatment. Besides, CaMKs are essential for the maintenance of cellular redox balance. Disruption of either CMK1 or CMK2, or both not only led to a significant increase of intracellular ROS levels, but also led to a decrease of the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), suggesting the important roles that CaMKs play in the maintenance of the mitochondrial function. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.