{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T02:55:51Z","timestamp":1760237751837,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":24,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,6,12]],"date-time":"2020-06-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1591920000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100007514","name":"University of Pisa","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["grant no. PRA 2017 18 n18"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["grant no. PRA 2017 18 n18"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100007514","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100009647","name":"Ministry of Health","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["ISS funding"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ISS funding"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100009647","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JoF"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The Candida parapsilosis genome encodes for five agglutinin-like sequence (Als) cell-wall glycoproteins involved in adhesion to biotic and abiotic surfaces. The work presented here is aimed at analyzing the role of the two still uncharacterized ALS genes in C. parapsilosis, CpALS4790 and CpALS0660, by the generation and characterization of CpALS4790 and CpALS066 single mutant strains. Phenotypic characterization showed that both mutant strains behaved as the parental wild type strain regarding growth rate in liquid\/solid media supplemented with cell-wall perturbing agents, and in the ability to produce pseudohyphae. Interestingly, the ability of the CpALS0660 null mutant to adhere to human buccal epithelial cells (HBECs) was not altered when compared with the wild-type strain, whereas deletion of CpALS4790 led to a significant loss of the adhesion capability. RT-qPCR analysis performed on the mutant strains in co-incubation with HBECs did not highlight significant changes in the expression levels of others ALS genes. In vivo experiments in a murine model of vaginal candidiasis indicated a significant reduction in CFUs recovered from BALB\/C mice infected with each mutant strain in comparison to those infected with the wild type strain, confirming the involvement of CpAls4790 and CpAls5600 proteins in C. parapsilosis vaginal candidiasis in mice.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jof6020086","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,6,15]],"date-time":"2020-06-15T03:17:32Z","timestamp":1592191052000},"page":"86","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Role of CpALS4790 and CpALS0660 in Candida parapsilosis Virulence: Evidence from a Murine Model of Vaginal Candidiasis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"6","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6506-5719","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marina","family":"Zoppo","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, University of Pisa, 56127 Pisa, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8863-5286","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fabrizio","family":"Fiorentini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, University of Pisa, 56127 Pisa, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Cosmeri","family":"Rizzato","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, 56127 Pisa, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0688-034X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mariagrazia","family":"Di Luca","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, University of Pisa, 56127 Pisa, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6975-8114","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Antonella","family":"Lupetti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, 56127 Pisa, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5130-3632","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Daria","family":"Bottai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, University of Pisa, 56127 Pisa, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7522-7483","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marisa","family":"Colone","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Center for Drug Research and Evaluation, Istituto Superiore di Sanit\u00e0, 00161 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0143-2978","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Annarita","family":"Stringaro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"National Center for Drug Research and Evaluation, Istituto Superiore di Sanit\u00e0, 00161 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Flavia","family":"De Bernardis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases, Istituto Superiore di Sanit\u00e0, 00161 Rome, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5791-686X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Arianna","family":"Tavanti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, University of Pisa, 56127 Pisa, Italy"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,6,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"280","DOI":"10.3389\/fmicb.2016.00280","article-title":"Candida albicans Agglutinin-Like Sequence (Als) Family Vignettes: A Review of Als Protein Structure and Function","volume":"7","author":"Hoyer","year":"2016","journal-title":"Front. 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