Morphological heterogeneity of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis: relevance of the Rho-like GTPase PbCDC42

Abstract

Paracoccidioides brasiliensis budding pattern and polymorphic growth were previously shown to be closely linked to the expression of PbCDC42 and to influence the pathogenesis of the fungus. In this work we conducted a detailed morphogenetic evaluation of the yeast-forms of 11 different clinical and environmental P. brasiliensis isolates comprising four phylogenetic lineages (S1, PS2, PS3 and Pb01-like), as well as a PbCDC42 knock-down strain. High variations in the shape and size of mother and bud cells of each isolate were observed but we did not find a characteristic morphologic profile for any of the phylogenetic groups. In all isolates studied, the bud size and shape were demonstrated to be highly dependent on the mother cell. Importantly, we found strong correlations between PbCDC42 expression and both the shape of mother and bud cells and the size of the buds in all isolates and the knock-down strain. Our results suggested that PbCDC42 expression can explain approximately 80% of mother and bud cell shape and 19% of bud cell size. This data support PbCDC42 expression level as being a relevant predictor of P. brasiliensis morphology. Altogether, these findings quantitatively describe the polymorphic nature of the P. brasiliensis yeast form and provide additional support for the key role of PbCDC42 expression on yeast cell morphology.