MFS transportome of the human pathogenic yeast <it>Candida albicans</it>

• Main Authors: Mukhopadhayay Gauranga, Rai Versha, Manoharlal Raman, Puri Nidhi, Gaur Manisha, Choudhury Devapriya, Prasad Rajendra
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2008-12-01
• Series: BMC Genomics
• Online Access: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/9/579

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The major facilitator superfamily (MFS) is one of the two largest superfamilies of membrane transporters present ubiquitously in bacteria, archaea, and eukarya and includes members that function as uniporters, symporters or antiporters. We report here the complete transportome of MFS proteins of a human pathogenic yeast <it>Candida albicans</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Computational analysis of <it>C. albicans </it>genome enabled us to identify 95 potential MFS proteins which clustered into 17 families using Saier's Transport Commission (TC) system. Among these SP, DHA1, DHA2 and ACS represented major families consisting of 22, 22, 9 and 16 members, respectively. Family designations in <it>C. albicans </it>were validated by subjecting <it>Saccharomyces cerevisiae </it>genome to TC system. Based on the published available genomics/proteomics data, 87 of the putative MFS genes of <it>C. albicans </it>were found to express either at mRNA or protein levels. We checked the expression of the remaining 8 genes by using RT-PCR and observed that they are not expressed under basal growth conditions implying that either these 8 genes are expressed under specific growth conditions or they may be candidates for pseudogenes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The <it>in silico </it>characterisation of MFS transporters in <it>Candida albicans </it>genome revealed a large complement of MFS transporters with most of them showing expression. Considering the clinical relevance of <it>C. albicans </it>and role of MFS members in antifungal resistance and nutrient transport, this analysis would pave way for identifying their physiological relevance.</p>