Trichophyton rubrum (T.rubrum) is one of the most common human fungal pathogens that cause chronic infections of the skin and nails. To identify antifungal responsive genes, cDNA microarray analysis was performed for T. rubrum to reveal global transcriptional profiles of drug-specific responses to 5-Flucytosine (5-FC). cDNA microarray was constructed from the T. rubrum expressed sequence tag (ESTs) database, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 5-FC was determined, and microarray hybridization and data analysis were applied. The expression pattern of 7 genes observed by microarray was confirmed by the quantitative real-time reverser transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Data analysis indicated that a total of 474 genes were found differentially expressed, 196 showed an increase in expression and 278 showed a decrease in expression. Marked down-regulation of genes involved in nucleotide metabolism (such as CDC21), transcription (such as E2F1), and RNA processing (such as SGN1, RIM4 and NOP1) was observed. Other genes involved in signal transduction, chaperones, inorganic ion transport, secondary metabolite biosynthesis, amino acid transport, lipid transport and potential drug resistance mechanism were also affected by 5-FC. Quantitative real-time RT-PCR of the selected genes confirmed the reliability of the microarray results. This is the first analysis of transcriptional profiles in response to 5-FC for T. rubrum. The findings may be valuable for the identification of genes involved in mechanisms of action and mechanisms of antifungal drug resistance of 5-FC.
