Vitamin C Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Vitamin C, including details on benefits, dosage, supplements, information.

D-Erythroascorbic acid activates cyanide-resistant respiration in Candida albicans.

Huh WK, Song YB, Lee YS, Ha CW, Kim ST, Kang SO

School of Biological Sciences and Institute of Microbiology, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-747, Republic of Korea.

Higher plants, protists and fungi possess cyanide-resistant respiratory pathway, which is mediated by alternative oxidase (AOX). The activity of AOX has been found to be dependent on several regulatory mechanisms including gene expression and posttranslational regulation. In the present study, we report that the presence of cyanide in culture medium remarkably retarded the growth of alo1/alo1 mutant of Candida albicans, which lacks d-arabinono-1,4-lactone oxidase (ALO) that catalyzes the final step of d-erythroascorbic acid (EASC) biosynthesis. Measurement of respiratory activity and Western blot analysis revealed that increase in the intracellular EASC level induces the expression of AOX in C. albicans. AOX could still be induced by antimycin A, a respiratory inhibitor, in the absence of EASC, suggesting that several factors may act in parallel pathways to induce the expression of AOX. Taken together, our results suggest that EASC plays important roles in activation of cyanide-resistant respiration in C. albicans.

Published 25 March 2008 in Biochem Biophys Res Commun, 369(2): 401-6.
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