ArticleCellular microbiology2012
Methylation of glycosylated sphingolipid modulates membrane lipid topography and pathogenicity of Cryptococcus neoformans.
Article in Cellular microbiology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 49 papers.
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Who cites it
49 citing papers in PubMed, 81 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Advances in cryptococcal infections-associated immunopathology and potential therapeutic strategies.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Review
- Targeting fungal lipid synthesis for antifungal drug development and potentiation of contemporary antifungals.npj antimicrobials and resistance · 2025Review
- Two structurally different oomycete lipophilic microbe-associated molecular patterns induce distinctive plant immune responses.Plant physiology · 2024Article
- Step-wise evolution of azole resistance through copy number variation followed by KSR1 loss of heterozygosity in Candida albicans.PLoS pathogens · 2024Article
- Erg251 has complex and pleiotropic effects on sterol composition, azole susceptibility, filamentation, and stress response phenotypes.PLoS pathogens · 2024Article
- Biofilm-associated metabolism via ERG251 in Candida albicans.PLoS pathogens · 2024Article
- Role of sphingolipids in the host-pathogen interaction.Biochimica et biophysica acta. Molecular and cell biology of lipids · 2023Article
- Cryptococcus neoformans adapts to the host environment through TOR-mediated remodeling of phospholipid asymmetry.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Genetic Characterization of the Acidic and Neutral Glycosphingolipid Biosynthetic Pathways inMicroorganisms · 2023Article
- Article
- Phenotype to genotype inCurrent research in microbial sciences · 2022Article
- Structure and inhibition of Cryptococcus neoformans sterylglucosidase to develop antifungal agents.Nature communications · 2021Article
- Treatment strategies for cryptococcal infection: challenges, advances and future outlook.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2021Review
- Mass Spectrometric Analysis of Bioactive Sphingolipids in Fungi.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2021Article
- Functions of Sphingolipids in Pathogenesis During Host-Pathogen Interactions.Frontiers in microbiology · 2021Review
- Glycosphingolipids in Filamentous Fungi: Biological Roles and Potential Applications in Cosmetics and Health Foods.Frontiers in microbiology · 2021Review
- Lipid Secretion by Parasitic Cells ofFrontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2021Article
- Scedosporium Cell Wall: From Carbohydrate-Containing Structures to Host-Pathogen Interactions.Mycopathologia · 2020Review
- Fungal sphingolipids: role in the regulation of virulence and potential as targets for future antifungal therapies.Expert review of anti-infective therapy · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
In previous studies we showed that the replication of Cryptococcus neoformans in the lung environment is controlled by the glucosylceramide (GlcCer) synthase gene (GCS1), which synthesizes the membrane sphingolipid GlcCer from the C9-methyl ceramide. Here, we studied the effect of the mutation of the sphingolipid C9 methyltransferase gene (SMT1), which adds a methyl group to position 9 of the sphingosine backbone of ceramide. The C. neoformans Δsmt1 mutant does not make C9-methyl ceramide and, thus, any methylated GlcCer. However, it accumulates demethylated ceramide and demethylated GlcCer. The Δsmt1 mutant loses more than 80% of its virulence compared with the wild type and the reconstituted strain. Interestingly, growth of C. neoformans Δsmt1 in the lung was decreased and C. neoformans cells were contained in lung granulomas, which significantly reduced the rate of their dissemination to the brain reducing the onset of meningoencephalitis. Thus, using fluorescent spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy we compared the wild type and Δsmt1 mutant and found that the altered membrane composition and GlcCer structure affects fungal membrane rigidity, suggesting that specific sphingolipid structures are required for proper fungal membrane organization and integrity. Therefore, we propose that the physical structure of the plasma membrane imparted by specific classes of sphingolipids represents a critical factor for the ability of the fungus to establish virulence.
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Registered trials
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