Transcriptome-wide expression profiling of Sporothrix schenckii yeast and mycelial forms and the establishment of the Sporothrix Genome DataBase

Authors: Domenico Giosa, Maria Rosa Felice, Letterio Giuffrè, Riccardo Aiese Cigliano, Andreu Paytuví-Gallart, Carla Lo Passo, Cinzia Barresi, Enrico D’Alessandro, Huaiqiu Huang, Giuseppe Criseo, Héctor M. Mora-Montes, Sybren de Hoog, Orazio Romeo

Institutions:

Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University Hospital of Messina, Messina 98125, Italy
Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Messina 98166, Italy
Department of Veterinary Sciences, Division of Animal Production, University of Messina, Messina 98168, Italy
Sequentia Biotech SL, Barcelona 08005, Spain
Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510630, Guangdong, PR China
Department of Dermatology and Venereology, Baoan District People’s Hospital of Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518012, PR China
Departamento de Biología, División de Ciencias Naturales y Exactas, Campus Guanajuato, Universidad de Guanajuato, Guanajuato 36050, Mexico
Center of Expertise in Mycology, Radboud University Medical Center/Canisius Wilhelmina Hospital, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Publication: Microbial Genomics

Date: October 2020

Full paper: https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/mgen/10.1099/mgen.0.000445

Abstract:

Sporothrix schenckii is a dimorphic fungus existing as mould in the environment and as yeast in the host. The morphological shift between mycelial/yeast phases is crucial for its virulence, but the transcriptional networks implicated in dimorphic transition are still not fully understood. Here, we report the global transcriptomic differences occurring between mould and yeast phases of S. schenckii, including changes in gene expression profiles associated with these distinct cellular phenotypes. Moreover, we also propose a new genome annotation, which reveals a more complex transcriptional architecture than previously assumed. Using RNA-seq, we identified a total of 17 307 genes, of which 11 217 were classified as protein-encoding genes, whereas 6090 were designated as non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs). Approximately ~71 % of all annotated genes were found to overlap and the different-strand overlapping type was the most common. Gene expression analysis revealed that 8795 genes were differentially regulated among yeast and mould forms. Differential gene expression was also observed for antisense ncRNAs overlapping neighbouring protein-encoding genes. The release of transcriptome-wide data and the establishment of the Sporothrix Genome DataBase (http://sporothrixgenomedatabase.unime.it) represent an important milestone for Sporothrix research, because they provide a strong basis for future studies on the molecular pathways involved in numerous biological processes.