Cloning And Characterization Of Candida Albicans CaRCK2 Gene

Rck2 is a Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase (MAPK) -activated Ser/Thr protein kinase, which is phosphorylated and activated by Hog1 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The rck2Δmutant is sensitive to multiple oxidants such as Cd²⁺, Zn²⁺ and tBOOH, which indicates Rck2 has an anti-oxidative stress function. In this study, we queried the Candida albicans genome database (CGD) with S.cerevisiae Rck2 (ScRck2) amino acid sequence, and obtained the orf19.9808, that has the highest sequence homolog with ScRck2. We cloned this allele into a yeast single copy expression vector pRS316. We transformed the recombinant plasmid pRSRCK2 into S.cerevisiae rck2Δcells and found this allele could complement the anti-oxidative stress function of ScRck2. Therefore we named the orf19.9808 as Candida albicans RCK2 (CaRCK2) gene.