ArticleThe Journal of biological chemistry2022
Cryptococcus neoformans melanization incorporates multiple catecholamines to produce polytypic melanin.
Article in The Journal of biological chemistry, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 47 citations in OpenAlex.
- Set202 is a histone lysine methyltransferase that enablesbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Investigating the therapeutic potential of the antibacterial drug nitroxoline in combating cryptococcal infection.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Article
- Synergic Effect of Fluconazole and Quinoline Derivatives Combination AgainstMicroorganisms · 2026Article
- The cutaneous microbiome as a dynamic photoprotective interface against solar radiation.Photochemical & photobiological sciences : Official journal of the European Photochemistry Association and the European Society for Photobiology · 2026Review
- Exploring allomelanin: A comparative analysis via natural product extraction and synthesis.Science advances · 2026Article
- Microbial melanin: biosynthesis, functional Insights, and emerging research challenges.World journal of microbiology & biotechnology · 2026Review
- Genetically Encoded Sensors for Monitoring Intracellular Redox Health of the Pathogenic FungusACS sensors · 2025Article
- A roadmap to chemically reactive species: how diverse oxidants affectMicrobiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2025Review
- Article
- From melanogenesis to melanin technologies.Communications chemistry · 2025Review
- Genetic, structural, and functional characterization of allomelanin from black yeast Exophiala viscosa, a chassis for fungal melanin production.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2025Article
- Polymorphic α-Glucans as Structural Scaffolds in Cryptococcus Cell Walls for Chitin, Capsule, and Melanin: Insights FromAngewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2025Article
- Insights from Mass Spectrometry-Based Proteomics onJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Effect of insertion of intein to Cryptococcus amylolentus, a nonpathogenic fungus closely related to causative agents of cryptococcosis.Microbial pathogenesis · 2025Article
- Cutaneous cryptococcosis evaluation on reflectance confocal microscopy.JAAD case reports · 2025Article
- Melanin in fungi: advances in structure, biosynthesis, regulation, and metabolic engineering.Microbial cell factories · 2024Review
- Molecular architecture of chitin and chitosan-dominated cell walls in zygomycetous fungal pathogens by solid-state NMR.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Cell wall melanin impedes growth of theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Investigation of the influence of pH and temperature on melanization and survival under oxidative stress in Cryptococcus neoformans.Archives of microbiology · 2024Article
- Deciphering antifungal and antibiofilm mechanisms of isobavachalcone against Cryptococcus neoformans through RNA-seq and functional analyses.Microbial cell factories · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Melanin is a major virulence factor in pathogenic fungi that enhances the ability of fungal cells to resist immune clearance. Cryptococcus neoformans is an important human pathogenic fungus that synthesizes melanin from exogenous tissue catecholamine precursors during infection, but the type of melanin made in cryptococcal meningoencephalitis is unknown. We analyzed the efficacy of various catecholamines found in brain tissue in supporting melanization using animal brain tissue and synthetic catecholamine mixtures reflecting brain tissue proportions. Solid-state NMR spectra of the melanin pigment produced from such mixtures yielded more melanin than expected if only the preferred constituent dopamine had been incorporated, suggesting uptake of additional catecholamines. Probing the biosynthesis of melanin using radiolabeled catecholamines revealed that C. neoformans melanization simultaneously incorporated more than one catecholamine, implying that the pigment was polytypic in nature. Nonetheless, melanin derived from individual or mixed catecholamines had comparable ability to protect C. neoformans against ultraviolet light and oxidants. Our results indicate that melanin produced during infection differs depending on the catecholamine composition of tissue and that melanin pigment synthesized in vivo is likely to accrue from the polymerization of a mixture of precursors. From a practical standpoint, our results strongly suggest that using dopamine as a polymerization precursor is capable of producing melanin pigment comparable to that produced during infection. On a more fundamental level, our findings uncover additional structural complexity for natural cryptococcal melanin by demonstrating that pigment produced during human infection is likely to be composed of polymerized moieties derived from chemically different precursors.
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