A toolbox for epitope-tagging and genome-wide location analysis in Candida albicans

Abstract

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Candida albicans </it>is a diploid pathogenic fungus not yet amenable to routine genetic investigations. Understanding aspects of the regulation of its biological functions and the assembly of its protein complexes would lead to further insight into the biology of this common disease-causing microbial agent.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We have developed a toolbox allowing <it>in vivo </it>protein tagging by PCR-mediated homologous recombination with TAP, HA and MYC tags. The transformation cassettes were designed to accommodate a common set of integration primers. The tagged proteins can be used to perform tandem affinity purification (TAP) or chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled with microarray analysis (ChIP-CHIP). Tandem affinity purification of <it>C. albicans </it>Nop1 revealed the high conservation of the small processome composition in yeasts. Data obtained with <it>in vivo </it>TAP-tagged Tbf1, Cbf1 and Mcm1 recapitulates previously published genome-wide location profiling by ChIP-CHIP. We also designed a new reporter system for <it>in vivo </it>analysis of transcriptional activity of gene <it>loci </it>in <it>C. albicans</it>.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This toolbox provides a basic setup to perform purification of protein complexes and increase the number of annotated transcriptional regulators and genetic circuits in <it>C. albicans</it>.</p