Ping Hu

Publications (2)14.52 Total impact

• Article: Zinc pyrithione inhibits yeast growth through copper influx and inactivation of iron-sulfur proteins.

  Nancy L Reeder, Jerry Kaplan, Jun Xu, R Scott Youngquist, Jared Wallace, Ping Hu, Kenton D Juhlin, James R Schwartz, Raymond A Grant, Angela Fieno, Suzanne Nemeth, Tim Reichling, Jay P Tiesman, Tim Mills, Mark Steinke, Shuo L Wang, Charles W Saunders
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  ABSTRACT: Zinc pyrithione (ZPT) is an antimicrobial material with widespread use in antidandruff shampoos and antifouling paints. Despite decades of commercial use, there is little understanding of its antimicrobial mechanism of action. We used a combination of genome-wide approaches (yeast deletion mutants and microarrays) and traditional methods (gene constructs and atomic emission) to characterize the activity of ZPT against a model yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. ZPT acts through an increase in cellular copper levels that leads to loss of activity of iron-sulfur cluster-containing proteins. ZPT was also found to mediate growth inhibition through an increase in copper in the scalp fungus Malassezia globosa. A model is presented in which pyrithione acts as a copper ionophore, enabling copper to enter cells and distribute across intracellular membranes. This is the first report of a metal-ligand complex that inhibits fungal growth by increasing the cellular level of a different metal.
  Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 09/2011; 55(12):5753-60. · 4.84 Impact Factor
• Article: Dandruff-associated Malassezia genomes reveal convergent and divergent virulence traits shared with plant and human fungal pathogens.

  Jun Xu, Charles W Saunders, Ping Hu, Raymond A Grant, Teun Boekhout, Eiko E Kuramae, James W Kronstad, Yvonne M Deangelis, Nancy L Reeder, Kevin R Johnstone, [......], Angela M Fieno, William M Begley, Yiping Sun, Martin P Lacey, Tanuja Chaudhary, Thomas Keough, Lien Chu, Russell Sears, Bo Yuan, Thomas L Dawson
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  ABSTRACT: Fungi in the genus Malassezia are ubiquitous skin residents of humans and other warm-blooded animals. Malassezia are involved in disorders including dandruff and seborrheic dermatitis, which together affect >50% of humans. Despite the importance of Malassezia in common skin diseases, remarkably little is known at the molecular level. We describe the genome, secretory proteome, and expression of selected genes of Malassezia globosa. Further, we report a comparative survey of the genome and secretory proteome of Malassezia restricta, a close relative implicated in similar skin disorders. Adaptation to the skin environment and associated pathogenicity may be due to unique metabolic limitations and capabilities. For example, the lipid dependence of M. globosa can be explained by the apparent absence of a fatty acid synthase gene. The inability to synthesize fatty acids may be complemented by the presence of multiple secreted lipases to aid in harvesting host lipids. In addition, an abundance of genes encoding secreted hydrolases (e.g., lipases, phospholipases, aspartyl proteases, and acid sphingomyelinases) was found in the M. globosa genome. In contrast, the phylogenetically closely related plant pathogen Ustilago maydis encodes a different arsenal of extracellular hydrolases with more copies of glycosyl hydrolase genes. M. globosa shares a similar arsenal of extracellular hydrolases with the phylogenetically distant human pathogen, Candida albicans, which occupies a similar niche, indicating the importance of host-specific adaptation. The M. globosa genome sequence also revealed the presence of mating-type genes, providing an indication that Malassezia may be capable of sex.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 11/2007; 104(47):18730-5. · 9.68 Impact Factor