Homologs of the yeast neck filament associated genes: isolation and sequence analysis of Candida albicans CDC3 and CDC10

Morphogenesis in the yeast Saccharomyes cerevisiae consists primarily of bud formation. Certain cell division cycle (CDC) genes, CDC3, CDC10, CDC11, CDC12, are known to be involved in events critical to the pattern of bud growth and the completion of cytokinesis. Their products are associated with the formation of a ring of neck filaments that forms at the region of the mother cell-bud junction during mitosis. Morphogenesis in Candida albicans, a major fungal pathogen of humans, consists of both budding and the formation of hyphae. The latter is thought to be related to the pathogenesis and invasiveness of C. albicans. We have isolated and characterized C. albicans homologs of the S. cerevisiae CDC3 and CDC10 genes. Both C. albicans genes are capable of complementing defects in the respective S. cerevisiae genes. RNA analysis of one of the genes suggests that it is a regulated gene, with higher overall expression levels during the hyphal phase than in the yeast phase. Not surprisingly, DNA sequence analysis reveals that the proteins share extensive homology at the amino acid level with their respective S. cerevisiae counterparts. Related genes are also found in other species of Candida and, more importantly, in filamentous fungi such as Aspergillus nidulans and Neurospora crassa. A database search revealed significant sequence similarity with two peptides, one from Drosophila and one from mouse, suggesting strong evolutionary conservation of function.