Protein synthesis patterns of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis isolates in stage-specific forms and during cellular differentiation

Abstract

In this paper we compared the protein synthesis patterns of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis isolates. The protein profiles were compared for both yeast and mycelial forms and similarity analysis among them was performed by calculating similarity matrices and grouping the isolates in dendrograms. The examined isolates exhibited highly variable cellular morphology at 36 °C, when typical yeast cells were expected. On the other hand, at 26 °C all the isolates showed mycelial morphology. The analysis of protein synthesis profiles made it possible to cluster the P. brasiliensis isolates into groups that correlated with the morphological data. Interestingly, growth at 36 °C strongly decreased the heterogeneity of protein synthesis patterns seen in mycelial isolates. It was possible to cluster the isolates grown at 36 °C in three groups based on their two- dimensional protein synthesis analysis. The similarity index observed among the mycelial isolates was lower than that obtained with yeast cells, suggesting a more homogeneous gene expression pattern in the host-adapted form than in the saprobic phase.