The synthesis, regulation, and functions of sterols in Candida albicans: Well-known but still lots to learn

ABSTRACT

Sterols are the basal components of the membranes of the fungal pathogen Candida albicans, and these membranes determine the susceptibility of C. albicans cells to a variety of stresses, such as ionic, osmotic and oxidative pressures, and treatment with antifungal drugs. The common antifungal azoles in clinical use are targeted to the biosynthesis of ergosterol. In the past years, the synthesis, storage and metabolism of ergosterol in Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been characterized in some detail; however, these processes has not been as well investigated in the human opportunistic pathogen C. albicans. In this review, we summarize the genes involved in ergosterol synthesis and regulation in C. albicans. As well, genes in S. cerevisiae implicated in ergosterol storage and conversions with other lipids are noted, as these provide us clues and directions for the study of the homologous genes in C. albicans. In this report we have particularly focused on the essential roles of ergosterol in the dynamic process of cell biology and its fundamental status in the biological membrane system that includes lipid rafts, lipid droplets, vacuoles and mitochondria. We believe that a thorough understanding of this classic and essential pathway will give us new ideas about drug resistance and morphological switching in C. albicans.

KEYWORDS:

• biosynthesis
• Candida albicans
• function
• regulation
• sterols

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

Acknowledgments

We thank Malcolm Whiteway (Concordia University) for critical reading of our manuscript. The authors would like to apologize to all researchers whose important works were unable to be cited because of space limitations.

Funding

L.Y. is supported by Natural Science Foundation of China (81470158). Y.J. is supported by China National 973 Program (2013CB531602) and Natural Science Foundation of China (81330083).