A bacterial endosymbiont of the fungus Rhizopus microsporus drives phagocyte evasion and opportunistic virulence.

Opportunistic infections by environmental fungi are a growing clinical problem, driven by an increasing population of people with immunocompromising conditions. Spores of the Mucorales order are ubiquitous in the environment but can also cause acute invasive infections in humans through germination and evasion of the mammalian host immune system. How they achieve this and the evolutionary drivers underlying the acquisition of virulence mechanisms are poorly understood. Here, we show that a clinical isolate of Rhizopus microsporus contains a Ralstonia pickettii bacterial endosymbiont required for virulence in both zebrafish and mice and that this endosymbiosis enables the secretion of factors that potently suppress growth of the soil amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, as well as their ability to engulf and kill other microbes. As amoebas are natural environmental predators of both bacteria and fungi, we propose that this tri-kingdom interaction contributes to establishing endosymbiosis and the acquisition of anti-phagocyte activity. Importantly, we show that this activity also protects fungal spores from phagocytosis and clearance by human macrophages, and endosymbiont removal renders the fungal spores avirulent in vivo. Together, these findings describe a new role for a bacterial endosymbiont in Rhizopus microsporus pathogenesis in animals and suggest a mechanism of virulence acquisition through environmental interactions with amoebas.

A Glucuronoxylomannan Epitope Exhibits Serotype-Specific Accessibility and Redistributes towards the Capsule Surface during Titanization of the Fungal Pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans.

Disseminated infections with the fungal species Cryptococcus neoformans or, less frequently, Cryptococcus gattii are an important cause of mortality in immunocompromised individuals. Central to the virulence of both species is an elaborate polysaccharide capsule that consists predominantly of glucuronoxylomannan (GXM). Due to its abundance, GXM is an ideal target for host antibodies, and several monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have previously been derived using purified GXM or whole capsular preparations as antigens. In addition to their application in the diagnosis of cryptococcosis, anti-GXM mAbs are invaluable tools for studying capsule structure. In this study, we report the production and characterization of a novel anti-GXM mAb, Crp127, that unexpectedly reveals a role for GXM remodeling during the process of fungal titanization. We show that Crp127 recognizes a GXM epitope in an O-acetylation-dependent, but xylosylation-independent, manner. The epitope is differentially expressed by the four main serotypes of Cryptococcus neoformans and C. gattii, is heterogeneously expressed within clonal populations of C. gattii serotype B strains, and is typically confined to the central region of the enlarged capsule. Uniquely, however, this epitope redistributes to the capsular surface in titan cells, a recently characterized morphotype where haploid 5-µm cells convert to highly polyploid cells of >10 µm with distinct but poorly understood capsular characteristics. Titan cells are produced in the host lung and critical for successful infection. Crp127 therefore advances our understanding of cryptococcal morphological change and may hold significant potential as a tool to differentially identify cryptococcal strains and subtypes.