Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-28-2018

Description

Cell wall mannans of Candida albicans mask β-(1,3)-glucan from recognition by Dectin-1, contributing to innate immune evasion. Glucan exposures are predominantly single receptor-ligand interaction sites of nanoscale dimensions. Candida species vary in basal glucan exposure and molecular complexity of mannans. We used super-resolution fluorescence imaging and a series of protein mannosylation mutants in C. albicans and C. glabrata to investigate the role of specific N-mannan features in regulating the nanoscale geometry of glucan exposure. Decreasing acid labile mannan abundance and α-(1,6)-mannan backbone length correlated most strongly with increased density and nanoscopic size of glucan exposures in C. albicans and C. glabrata, respectively. Additionally, a C. albicans clinical isolate with high glucan exposure produced similarly perturbed N-mannan structures and elevated glucan exposure geometry. Thus, acid labile mannan structure influences the nanoscale features of glucan exposure, impacting the nature of the pathogenic surface that triggers immunoreceptor engagement, aggregation, and signaling. Graus et al. find that N-mannan structural features regulated by Candida mannosyltransfersases control glucan exposure. Loss of mannan increased the frequency and size of glucan exposures and changed multivalent receptor engagement. Changes to mannan structure in a bloodstream isolate are associated with elevated glucan exposure at the nanoscale.

Copyright Statement

ell Reports 24, 2432–2442, August 28, 2018 ª 2018 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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