The effect of Hxk1 on gene expression in Candida albicans

The Hxk1 protein of Candida albicans is a moonlighting protein with a wide variety of functions. It phosphorylates N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) which is necessary for different purposes in the cell including energy and chitin production. Further, this protein is a regulator for morphogenesis independent of its function during GlcNAc catabolism. When HXK1 is deleted, cells are hyperfilamentous on spider medium or serum-containing medium but show no hyphae on GlcNAc-containing medium. Furthermore, Hxk1 translocates to the nucleus in the presence of glucose, where it exerts a negative effect on its own expression. To gain a broad understanding of the effect of Hxk1 on gene expression in C. albicans, we performed genome-wide transcriptional profiling of the hxk1 mutant strain by RNA-Seq. The analysis of these RNA-Seq data showed both a carbon source dependent and independent effect on gene expression by Hxk1.