Poster abstracts
Poster number 127 submitted by Emeline Scott
Generation of pug1, pug1met2, met2 in C. albicans assessing pseudouridine degradation
Emeline A. A. Scott (Biology Ball State University)
Abstract:
C. albicans is an opportunistic human fungal pathogen that can cause mucosal and systemic infections, particularly in immunocompromised individuals. Unlike humans, C. albicans is thought to degrade pseudouridine, the most prevalent RNA modification. The rationale behind my project is to characterize genes such as PUG1 that play roles in this degradation process and may have the potential as a target for antifungals. PUG1 is proposed to encode a pseudouridine monophosphate glycosidase the enzyme family thought to degrade pseudouridine. We found MET2 and CHA1 genes were two of the three genes to be downregulated in pug1. MET2 and CHA1 are proposed to be required for amino acid catabolism. We used CRISPR to insert stop codons into PUG1, MET2, and CHA1 genes. We created pug1, pug1met2, and met2 strains and found that there are differences in filamentation, a critical virulence attribute, in pug1. Additionally, a growth rate difference was observed between pug1, pug1met2, and met2 strains. We are in the process of examining each mutant's filamentation, rate of growth, and virulence in a planarian model.
Keywords: Candida albicans, CRISPR, pseudouridine