Trehalose accumulation induced during the oxidative stress response is independent of TPS1 mRNA levels in Candida albicans Authors Óscar Zaragoza Unidad de Bioquímica y Gené tica de Levaduras, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, CSIC, Madrid, Spain Pilar González-Párraga Area de Microbiología, Universidad de Murcia, Facultad de Biología, Murcia, Spain Yolanda Pedreño Area de Microbiología, Universidad de Murcia, Facultad de Biología, Murcia, Spain Francisco J. Álvarez-Peral Area de Microbiología, Universidad de Murcia, Facultad de Biología, Murcia, Spain Juan-Carlos Argüelles Area de Microbiología, Universidad de Murcia, Facultad de Biología, Murcia, Spain Keywords: Candida albicans, TPS1 gene Abstract Growing cells of the Candida albicans trehalose- deficient mutant tps1/tps1 were extremely sensitive to severe oxidative stress exposure (H2O2). However, their viability was not affected after saline stress or heatshock treatments, being roughly equivalent to that of the parental strain. In wild-type cells, these adverse conditions induced the intracellular accumulation of trehalose together with activation of trehalose-6P synthase, whereas the endogenous trehalose content and the corresponding biosynthetic activity were barely detectable in the tps1/tps1 mutant. The addition of cycloheximide did not prevent the marked induction of trehalose-6P synthase activity. Furthermore, the presence of H2O2 decreased the level of TPS1 mRNA expression. Hence, the conspicuous trehalose accumulation in response to oxidative stress is not induced by increased transcription of TPS1. Our results are consistent with a specific requirement of trehalose in order to withstand a severe oxidative stress in C. albicans, and suggest that trehalose accumulation observed under these conditions is a complex process that most probably involves post-translational modifications of the trehalose synthase complex. Downloads PDF Published 2010-03-08 Issue Vol. 6 No. 2 (2003) Section Research Articles License Submission of a manuscript to International Microbiology implies: that the work described has not been published before, including publication in the World Wide Web (except in the form of an Abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, or thesis); that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere; that all the coauthors have agreed to its publication. The corresponding author signs for and accepts responsability for releasing this material and will act on behalf of any and all coauthors regarding the editorial review and publication process.If an article is accepted for publication in International Microbiology, the authors (or other copyright holder) must transfer to the journal the right–not exclusive–to reproduce and distribute the article including reprints, translations, photographic reproductions, microform, electronic form (offline, online) or any other reproductions of similar nature. Nevertheless, all article in International Microbiology will be available on the Internet to any reader at no cost. The journal allows users to freely download, copy, print, distribute, search, and link to the full text of any article, provided the authorship and source of the published article is cited. The copyright owner's consent does not include copying for new works, or resale. In these cases, the specific written permission of International Microbiology must first be obtained.Authors are requested to create a link to the published article on the journal's website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: "The original publication is available on LINK at <http://www.im.microbios.org>. Please use the appropiate URL for the article in LINK. Articles disseminated via LINK are indexed, abstracted, and referenced by many abstracting and information services, bibliographic networks, subscription agencies, library networks, and consortia.