Tamires Aparecida Bitencourt, Matheus Eloy Franco, Mozart Marins and Ana Lúcia Fachin
Unidade de Biotecnologia, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
Dermatophytes are keratinolytic fungi, classified as geophilic, anthropophilic and zoophilic species on the basis of their primary habitat association. The anthropophilic specie Trichophyton rubrum is the most common in superficial mycoses worldwide. Although dermatophytes do not normally penetrate beyond the epidermis, deeper penetration and systemic infections can occur in immunocompromised hosts. The epidermis of skin is composed by keratin, while derme is constituted by collagen, fibers and elastin. The secretion of proteases is considered a key factor for virulence of dermatophytes, and arthroconidia play a central role in pathogenesis, since is responsible for skin adherence. The aim of this work was to verify the modulation of Subtilisin3 and Subtilisin1 in germinating conidia of T. rubrum growth on elastin and keratin substrates. The modulation of two encoding genes of Subtilisin3 and Subtilisin1 was carried out by qPCR using a pool of RNA of 24h, 36h and 72h of T. rubrum strain CBS118892 growth on keratin and elastin. The results show that the Subtilisin3 is similar induced by T. rubrum in both protein substrates, whereas subtilisin1 is more induced on keratin substrate. The modulation of these genes may be important to elucidate the superficial and deep infection mechanism.
Keywords: Trichophyton rubrum, Subtilisin1, Subtilisin3, keratin, elastin.