Cell-specific Gene Expression of Human - Trichophyton rubrum Interaction

PERES NT; GRAS DE; MARTINEZ-ROSSI NM; PRADE RA

Asilomar

Conferencia; 24th Fungal Genetics Conference at Asilomar; 2007

Genetics Society of America

Trichophyton rubrum is a medically relevant mold, widely encountered in superficial cutaneous infections. Although these infections are generally restricted to the stratum corneum of the skin, immunocompromised patients often develop deep local invasions with multivisceral dissemination that can result in death. We established an “in situ” human fungal cell interaction system to study dermatophyte-host interactions. We established the adhesion of T. rubrum microconidia to human epidermal skin-cells, germination and production of hyphae. We employed subtractive suppressive hybridization (SSH) to identify genes specifically expressed by T. rubrum during “in situ” interaction with human skin. Ambruticin is a new antifungal compound, which targets the ability of the fungus to adapt its osmoticum, accumulates large amounts of glycerol and dies. We describe the effect of ambruticin on human fungal cell interactions and its effect of gene expression.