Three transporters, including the novel Gai1 permease, drive amino acid uptake in Histoplasma yeasts

The dimorphic fungus Histoplasma capsulatum, which almost exclusively resides within host phagocytic cells during infection, must meet its nutritional needs by scavenging molecules from the phagosome environment. The requirement for gluconeogenesis, but not fatty acid catabolism, for intracellular g...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Stephanie C. Ray, Qian Shen, Chad A. Rappleye
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2024-12-01
Series:Virulence
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/21505594.2024.2438750
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1846130416706125824
author Stephanie C. Ray
Qian Shen
Chad A. Rappleye
author_facet Stephanie C. Ray
Qian Shen
Chad A. Rappleye
author_sort Stephanie C. Ray
collection DOAJ
description The dimorphic fungus Histoplasma capsulatum, which almost exclusively resides within host phagocytic cells during infection, must meet its nutritional needs by scavenging molecules from the phagosome environment. The requirement for gluconeogenesis, but not fatty acid catabolism, for intracellular growth, implicates amino acids as a likely intracellular nutrient source. Consequently, we investigated Histoplasma growth on amino acids. Growth assays demonstrated that Histoplasma yeasts readily utilize most amino acids as nitrogen sources but only efficiently catabolize glutamine, glutamate, aspartate, proline, isoleucine, and alanine as carbon sources. An amino acid permease-based conserved domain search identified 28 putative amino acid transporters within the Histoplasma genome. We characterized the substrate specificities of the major Histoplasma amino acid transporters using a Saccharomyces cerevisiae heterologous expression system and found that H. capsulatum Dip5, Gap3, and a newly described permease, Gai1, comprise most of Histoplasma’s amino acid import capacity. Histoplasma yeasts deficient in these three transporters are impaired for growth on free amino acids but proliferate within macrophages and remain fully virulent during infection of mice, indicating that free amino acids are not the principal nutrient source within the phagosome to support Histoplasma proliferation during infection.
format Article
id doaj-art-7752bca5725d4d28a4960aafa13e3d4a
institution Kabale University
issn 2150-5594
2150-5608
language English
publishDate 2024-12-01
publisher Taylor & Francis Group
record_format Article
series Virulence
spelling doaj-art-7752bca5725d4d28a4960aafa13e3d4a2024-12-09T18:44:40ZengTaylor & Francis GroupVirulence2150-55942150-56082024-12-0115110.1080/21505594.2024.2438750Three transporters, including the novel Gai1 permease, drive amino acid uptake in Histoplasma yeastsStephanie C. Ray0Qian Shen1Chad A. Rappleye2Department of Microbiology, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USADepartment of Biology, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN, USADepartment of Microbiology, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USAThe dimorphic fungus Histoplasma capsulatum, which almost exclusively resides within host phagocytic cells during infection, must meet its nutritional needs by scavenging molecules from the phagosome environment. The requirement for gluconeogenesis, but not fatty acid catabolism, for intracellular growth, implicates amino acids as a likely intracellular nutrient source. Consequently, we investigated Histoplasma growth on amino acids. Growth assays demonstrated that Histoplasma yeasts readily utilize most amino acids as nitrogen sources but only efficiently catabolize glutamine, glutamate, aspartate, proline, isoleucine, and alanine as carbon sources. An amino acid permease-based conserved domain search identified 28 putative amino acid transporters within the Histoplasma genome. We characterized the substrate specificities of the major Histoplasma amino acid transporters using a Saccharomyces cerevisiae heterologous expression system and found that H. capsulatum Dip5, Gap3, and a newly described permease, Gai1, comprise most of Histoplasma’s amino acid import capacity. Histoplasma yeasts deficient in these three transporters are impaired for growth on free amino acids but proliferate within macrophages and remain fully virulent during infection of mice, indicating that free amino acids are not the principal nutrient source within the phagosome to support Histoplasma proliferation during infection.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/21505594.2024.2438750Histoplasmapathogenesisphagosomeamino acid transportermacrophage
spellingShingle Stephanie C. Ray
Qian Shen
Chad A. Rappleye
Three transporters, including the novel Gai1 permease, drive amino acid uptake in Histoplasma yeasts
Virulence
Histoplasma
pathogenesis
phagosome
amino acid transporter
macrophage
title Three transporters, including the novel Gai1 permease, drive amino acid uptake in Histoplasma yeasts
title_full Three transporters, including the novel Gai1 permease, drive amino acid uptake in Histoplasma yeasts
title_fullStr Three transporters, including the novel Gai1 permease, drive amino acid uptake in Histoplasma yeasts
title_full_unstemmed Three transporters, including the novel Gai1 permease, drive amino acid uptake in Histoplasma yeasts
title_short Three transporters, including the novel Gai1 permease, drive amino acid uptake in Histoplasma yeasts
title_sort three transporters including the novel gai1 permease drive amino acid uptake in histoplasma yeasts
topic Histoplasma
pathogenesis
phagosome
amino acid transporter
macrophage
url https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/21505594.2024.2438750
work_keys_str_mv AT stephaniecray threetransportersincludingthenovelgai1permeasedriveaminoaciduptakeinhistoplasmayeasts
AT qianshen threetransportersincludingthenovelgai1permeasedriveaminoaciduptakeinhistoplasmayeasts
AT chadarappleye threetransportersincludingthenovelgai1permeasedriveaminoaciduptakeinhistoplasmayeasts