Figure 1.

SsOCH1 is the functional orthologous of ScOCH1.

Notes: The open reading frame of the four members of the Sporothrix schenckii OCH1 gene family was expressed in a S. cerevisiae och1Δ null mutant, as described in the “Materials and methods” section, and the gene expression was induced by growing cells in the Sc-Gal medium. (A) Cell morphology in liquid medium, inspected under bright-filed microscopy. Scale bar=10 µm. (B) The ability of cells to bind Alcian blue, an indirect measurement of the cell wall phosphomannan content, and therefore of mannan length was analyzed. (C) Cell wall porosity analyzed by the ability of polycations to leak 260 nm absorbing material. (D) The effect of some cell wall perturbing agents was evaluated by calculating the concentration at which 50% of growth was inhibited. The agents tested were Congo red, calcofluor white, and hygromycin B. Data are represented as mean ± SD of three independent experiments performed in duplicates. *P<0.05 when compared to the WT strain. Strains used are as follows: HMSC1 (WT), HMSC14 (och1Δ), HMSC18 (och1Δ+ ScOCH1), HMSC13 (och1Δ+ SsOCH1), HMSC15 (och1Δ+ SsOCH2), HMSC16 (och1Δ+ SsOCH3), and HMSC17 (och1Δ+ SsOCH4).

Abbreviations: DEAE, diethylaminoethyl; WT, wild type.