Pga13 in Candida albicans is localized in the cell wall and influences cell surface properties, morphogenesis and virulence.

The fungal cell wall is an essential organelle required for maintaining cell integrity and also plays an important role in the primary interactions between pathogenic fungi and their hosts. PGA13 encodes a GPI protein in the human pathogen Candida albicans, which is highly up-regulated during cell wall regeneration in protoplasts. The Pga13 protein contains a unique tandem repeat, which is present five times and is characterized by conserved spacing between the four cysteine residues. Furthermore, the mature protein contains 38% serine and threonine residues, and therefore probably is a highly glycosylated cell wall protein. Consistent with this, a chimeric Pga13-V5 protein could be localiz…