Publication Date:
2001-02-24
Description:
Many fungal pathogens are opportunistic, that is, they infect individuals who have a compromised immune system. Histoplasma capsulatum is a common pathogenic fungus that lives happily inside the phagosomes of macrophages. As Klein explains in his Perspective, an important H. capsulatum virulence factor, CBP1, has been found, which mops up free calcium ions within the phagosome, enabling the yeast to live under calcium-poor conditions (Sebhgati et al.). Chelating calcium ions may also have the added benefit that when the phagosome fuses with the lysosome, destructive lysosomal enzymes that require calcium ions for activity remain inactive.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Klein, B S -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2000 Nov 17;290(5495):1311-2.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Pediatrics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53792, USA. bsklein@facstaff.wisc.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11185407" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Calcium/*metabolism
;
Calcium-Binding Proteins/*genetics/*metabolism
;
Cell Line
;
Gene Targeting
;
Genes, Fungal
;
Histoplasma/genetics/growth & development/metabolism/*pathogenicity
;
Histoplasmosis/microbiology
;
Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
;
Lung Diseases, Fungal/microbiology
;
Macrophages/*microbiology
;
Mice
;
Mutagenesis
;
Phagosomes/metabolism/microbiology
;
Plasmids
;
Recombination, Genetic
;
Temperature
;
Transformation, Genetic
;
Virulence
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
