Plasma membrane phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate is not necessary for Candida albicans viability, yet is key for cell wall integrity and systemic infection

Abstract Phosphatidylinositol phosphates are key phospholipids with a range of regulatory roles, including membrane trafficking and cell polarity. Phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate [PI(4)P] at the Golgi is required for the budding to filamentous growth transition in the human pathogenic fungus Candida albicans, however the role of plasma membrane PI(4)P is unclear. We have investigated the importance of this phospholipid in C. albicans growth, stress response, and virulence by generating mutant strains with decreased levels of plasma membrane PI(4)P, via deletion of components of the PI-4-kinase complex, i.e. Efr3, Ypp1 and Stt4. The amount of plasma membrane PI(4)P in the efr3Δ/Δ and ypp1Δ/Δ mutant was ～60% and ～40% of the wild-type strain, respectively, whereas it was nearly undetectable in the stt4Δ/Δ mutant. All three mutants had reduced plasma membrane phosphatidylserine (PS). Although these mutants had normal yeast phase growth, they were defective in filamentous growth, exhibited defects in cell wall integrity and had an increased exposure of cell wall β(1,3)-glucan, yet they induced a range of hyphal specific genes. In a mouse model of hematogenously disseminated candidiasis, fungal plasma membrane PI(4)P levels directly correlated with virulence; the efr3Δ/Δ had wild-type virulence, the ypp1Δ/Δ mutant had attenuated virulence and the stt4Δ/Δ mutant caused no lethality. In the mouse model of orpharyngeal candidiasis, only the ypp1Δ/Δ mutant had reduced virulence, indicating that plasma membrane PI(4)P is less important for proliferation in the oropharynx. Collectively, these results demonstrate that plasma membrane PI(4)P levels play a central role in filamentation, cell wall integrity and virulence in C. albicans. ImportanceWhile the PI-4-kinases Pik1 and Stt4 both produce PI(4)P, the former generates PI(4)P at the Golgi and the latter at the plasma membrane and these two pools are functionally distinct. To address the importance of plasma membrane PI(4)P in Candida albicans, we have generated deletion mutants of the three putative plasma membrane PI-4-kinase complex components and quantified the levels of plasma membrane PI(4)P in each of these strains. Our work reveals that this phosphatidylinositol phosphate is specifically critical for the yeast-to-hyphal transition, cell wall integrity and virulence in a mouse systemic infection model. The significance of this work is in identifying a plasma membrane phospholipid that has an infection specific role, which is attributed to the loss of plasma membrane PI(4)P resulting in β(1,3)-glucan unmasking.