Stress tolerance of three opportunistic black yeasts | Toleranca na stres pri treh oportunističnih črnih kvasovkah

English. Many species of black yeasts can survive extremely harsh conditions and can quickly adapt to novel environments. These traits were proposed to have a role in the ability of some fungal species tocolonise indoor habitats inhospitable for majority of microorganisms, and to cause (opportunistic)infections in humans. In order to better understand the stress tolerance of black yeasts and thereby their opportunism, we focused our research on the three model black yeasts: the polyextremotolerant Au-reobasidium melanogenum and Exophiala dermatitidis, and the extremely halotolerant Hortaeawerneckii. These black yeasts are shown to thrive at temperatures, salinities, pH values and, H2O2 concentrations that inhibit growth of mesophilic species. Most importantly, unlike their close relatives they can not only grow, but also synthesize siderophores (E. dermatitidis) or degradeproteins (A. melanogenum) at 37 °C - traits that are crucial for pathogenesis in humans. These results support the hypothesis that the ability to cope with various environmental stresses is linked to the opportunistic behaviour of fungi. Therefore, better understanding of the connections between the stress-tolerant biology of black fungi and their ability to cause disease is needed, in particular due to their changing interactions with humans and their emerging pathogenicity.

Slovenian. Mnoge vrste črnih kvasovk lahko preživijo ekstremne razmere in se hitro prilagajajo novim okoljem. Te lastnosti imajo vlogo pri sposobnosti nekaterih vrst gliv, da lahko kolonizirajo negostoljubne habitate v notranjosti stavb in povzročijo (oportunistične) okužbe pri ljudeh. Raziskali smo toleranco na stres treh oportunističnih črnih kvasovk: poliekstremotolerantnih kvasovk Aureobasidium melanogenum in Exophiala dermatitidis ter izjemno halotolerantne kvasovke Hortaea werneckii. Vse tri črne kvasovke uspevajo pri temperaturah, koncentracijah NaCl, pH vrednostih in koncentracijah H2O2, ki zavrejo rast mezofilnih vrst. Še več, te vrste lahko v nasprotju s svojimi bližnjimi sorodniki ne le rastejo, temveč tudi sintetizirajo siderofore (E. dermatitidis) inrazgrajujejo proteine (A. melanogenum) pri 37 °C, kar sta pomembni lastnosti za patogenezo pri ljudeh.Ti rezultati se skladajo s hipotezo, da je sposobnost toleriranja različnih okoljskih stresov povezana z oportunističnim značajem gliv. Prav zato moramo bolje razumeti povezavo med biologijo tolerance na stres črnih gliv in njihovo sposobnostjo povzročanja bolezni, zlasti zaradi njihove spreminjajoče se interakcije z ljudmi in njihove porajajoče se patogenosti.