Biosynthesis of cell wall mannan in the conidium and the mycelium of Aspergillus fumigatus.

Christine Henry (1) , Thierry Fontaine (1) , Christoph Heddergott (1) , Pauline Robinet (1) , Vishukumar Aimanianda (1) , Remi Beau (1) , Anne Beauvais (1) , Isabelle Mouyna (1) , Marie-Christine Prevost (2) , Arnaud Fekkar (3) , Yanan Zhao (4) , David Perlin (4) , Jean-Paul Latgé (1)

1 Aspergillus
2 CITECH - Microscopie ultrastructurale - Ultrapole
3 Service de Parasitologie - Mycologie [CHU Pitié-Salpétrière]
4 RU - Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey [New Brunswick]

The galactomannan is a major cell wall molecule of Aspergillus fumigatus. This molecule is composed of a linear mannan with a repeating unit composed of four α1,6 and α1,2 linked mannose with side chains of galactofuran. To obtain a better understanding of the mannan biosynthesis in A. fumigatus, it was decided to undertake the successive deletion of the 11 genes which are putative orthologs of the mannosyltransferases responsible for establishing α1,6 and α1,2 mannose linkages in yeast. These deletions did not lead to a reduction of the mannan content of the cell wall of the mycelium of A. fumigatus. In contrast, the mannan content of the conidial cell wall was reduced and this reduction was associated with a partial disorganization of the cell wall leading to defects in conidial survival both in vitro and in vivo.

Domains: Mycology; Molecular biology; Biochemistry [q-bio.BM]

Christine Henry, Thierry Fontaine, Christoph Heddergott, Pauline Robinet, Vishukumar Aimanianda, et al.. Biosynthesis of cell wall mannan in the conidium and the mycelium of Aspergillus fumigatus.. Cellular Microbiology, 2016, 18 (12), pp.1881-1891. ⟨10.1111/cmi.12665⟩. ⟨pasteur-01500709⟩