ABSTRACT
We have treated seven patients with cryptococcal spondylitis. Five presented with a neurological deficit and one was HIV-positive. Amphotericin-B and 5-flucytosine were used in five patients and ketoconazole was given orally in the remaining two. Three patients made a complete neurological recovery. Since these lesions mimic spinal tuberculosis, which is commonly seen in our environment, we draw attention to the importance of obtaining a tissue diagnosis.
Subject(s)
AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections/diagnosis , Cryptococcosis/diagnosis , Spondylitis/diagnosis , AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections/drug therapy , Administration, Oral , Adult , Amphotericin B/administration & dosage , Antifungal Agents/administration & dosage , Bone Transplantation , Child , Combined Modality Therapy , Cryptococcosis/drug therapy , Decompression, Surgical , Diagnosis, Differential , Female , Flucytosine/administration & dosage , Humans , Ketoconazole/administration & dosage , Male , Spondylitis/drug therapyABSTRACT
The A mating type locus of the mushroom Coprinus cinereus regulates essential steps in sexual development. The locus is complex and contains several functionally redundant, multiallelic genes that encode putative transcription factors. Here, we compare four genes from an A locus designated A42. Overall, the DNA sequences are very different (approximately 50% homology), but two classes of genes can be distinguished on the basis of a conserved homeodomain motif in their predicted proteins (HD1 and HD2). Development is postulated to be triggered by an HD1 and an HD2 gene from different A loci. Thus, proteins encoded by genes of the same locus must be distinguished from those encoded by another locus. Individual proteins of both classes recognize each other using the region N-terminal to the homeodomain. These N-terminal specificity regions (COP1 and COP2) are predicted to be helical and are potential dimerization interfaces. The amino acid composition of the C-terminal regions of HD1 proteins suggests a role in activation, and gene truncations indicate that this region is essential for function in vivo. A corresponding C-terminal region in HD2 proteins can be dispensed with in vivo. We will discuss these predicted structural features of the C. cinereus A proteins, their proposed interactions following a compatible cell fusion, and their similarities to the a1 and alpha 2 mating type proteins of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Subject(s)
Coprinus/genetics , Fungal Proteins/genetics , Genes, Fungal/genetics , Genes, Mating Type, Fungal , Homeodomain Proteins/genetics , Amino Acid Sequence , Base Sequence , DNA, Complementary/genetics , Genome, Fungal , Homeodomain Proteins/classification , Mating Factor , Molecular Sequence Data , Peptides/genetics , Protein Structure, Secondary , Reproduction/genetics , Sequence Analysis, DNA , Transcription Factors/genetics , Transformation, GeneticABSTRACT
The A mating-type factor is one of two gene complexes that allows mating cells of the mushroom Coprinus cinereus to recognize self from nonself and to regulate a pathway of sexual development that leads to meiosis and sporulation. We have identified seven A genes separated into two subcomplexes corresponding to the classical A alpha and A beta loci. Four genes, one alpha and three beta, all coding for proteins with a homeo domain-related motif, determine A-factor specificity; their allelic forms are so different in sequence that they do not cross-hybridize. It requires only one of these four genes to be heteroallelic in a cell to trigger A-regulated sexual development, and it is the different combinations of their alleles that generate the multiple A factors found in nature. The other three genes cause no change in cell morphology and may regulate the activity of the four specificity genes.
