Aspergillus nidulans Septa Are Indispensable for Surviving Cell Wall Stress

Authors

Ryland N. Spence, University of Maryland Baltimore County
Walker Huso, University of Maryland Baltimore County
Harley Edwards, University of Maryland Baltimore County
Alexander Doan, University of Maryland Baltimore County
Samantha Reese, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Steven D. Harris, Iowa State University
Ranjan Srivastava, University of Connecticut - Storrs
Mark R. Marten, University of Maryland Baltimore CountyFollow

Date of this Version

2022

Citation

Downloaded from https://journals.asm.org/journal/spectrum on 24 February 2022 by 208.127.240.223.

Comments

© 2022 Spence et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Abstract

Septation in filamentous fungi is a normal part of development, which involves the formation of cross-hyphal bulkheads, typically containing pores, allowing cytoplasmic streaming between compartments. Based on previous findings regarding septa and cell wall stress, we hypothesized that septa are critical for survival during cell wall stress. To test this hypothesis, we used known Aspergillus nidulans septation-deficient mutants (ΔsepH, Δbud3, Δbud4, and Δrho4) and six antifungal compounds. Three of these compounds (micafungin, Congo red, and calcofluor white) are known cell wall stressors which activate the cell wall integrity signaling pathway (CWIS), while the three others (cycloheximide, miconazole, and 2,3-butanedione monoxime) perturb specific cellular processes not explicitly related to the cell wall. Our results show that deficiencies in septation lead to fungi which are more susceptible to cell wall-perturbing compounds but are no more susceptible to other antifungal compounds than a control. This implies that septa play a critical role in surviving cell wall stress.