Importance of CCW12 gene expression in zinc deficient Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract

Pathogenic fungi have a major impact on human health. There is a lack of good therapies and some pathogenic fungi are resistant to the existing treatments. One possible target for treatment is covalently bonded cell wall protein 12 (CCW12), which is a cell wall protein that is needed for structural stability of the fungal cell wall. CCW12 is also induced in low zinc conditions by Zap1, which is a protein that is involved in transcriptional regulation in response to zinc. The goal of this study was to determine why CCW12 is up-regulated in low zinc conditions by Zap1. A number of experiments were conducted and seem to indicate that the CCW12 is up-regulated in low zinc to help stabilize the cell wall. More studies should be done to clarify the role of CCW12 and to investigate possible treatment for fungal infections.