establishment or maintenance of cell shape involved in pheno

[gocentral]

Suggested NT: establishment or maintenance of cell shape involved in phenotype switching

I would like a new term that captures the function of genes involved in the maintenance of the opaque state during the white-to-opaque phenotypic switch of C. albicans.

For annotation of C. albicans MYO5/ orf19.738 PMID: 22408227 The motor protein Myo5p is required to maintain the regulatory circuit controlling WOR1 expression in Candida albicans. Kachurina N, Turcotte B, Whiteway M. Eukaryot Cell. 2012 Mar 9. [Epub ahead of print]

Thank you,

Diane

Reported by: dinglis

Original Ticket: geneontology/ontology-requests/9363

[gocentral]

• assigned_to: nobody --> jl242

Original comment by: jl242

[gocentral]

Hi Jane,

I have the term "phenotypic switching" GO:0036166 and I would like to request the term "establishment or maintenance of cell shape" so that I can create the new term "establishment or maintenance of cell shape involved in phenotype switching" with Term Geneie.

Suggested Def for "establishment or maintenance of cell shape" : Any cellular process that results in the specification, formation or maintenance of cell growth patterns that regulates the shaping of a cell.

PMID: 22408227

Thank you,

Diane

Original comment by: dinglis

[gocentral]

• priority: 5 --> 6

Original comment by: dinglis

[gocentral]

Hi Jane,

Do you have any suggestions as to what "establishment or maintenance" term I might be able to use to describe the maintenance of a particular cell type?

In the white-opaque phenotypic switch of C. albicans, the white phase has the normal budding cell morphology, virulence, gene expression profile, etc that is considered the standard or default state of C. albicans. Cells in the opaque state take on new physical and behavioral characteristics such as differences in cellular morphologies, gene expression profiles, mating abilities, and virulence properties (PMID: 21468996). Visually they are slightly elongated and contain pimple-like structures in their cell surface.

Ideally, the full term I would to have like would be "establishment or maintenance of cell phase" involved in "phenotypic switching" or stablishment or maintenance of cell state" involved in "phenotypic switching."

I have the phenotypic switching term, GO:0036166 and I need the other part to complete the term.

There are somewhat similar terms such as 'establishment of bipolar cell polarity involved in cell morphogenesis' (GO:0061159) but I want to steer clear of describing the opaque state as having bipolar or unicellular polarity because it actually has both PMID: 2269869.

Please advise.

Thank you, Diane

J Gen Microbiol. 1990 Oct;136(10):1925-36. Switching at the cellular level in the white-opaque transition of Candida albicans. Bergen MS, Voss E, Soll DR. PMID: 2269869

The motor protein Myo5p is required to maintain the regulatory circuit controlling WOR1 expression in Candida albicans. Kachurina N, Turcotte B, Whiteway M. Eukaryot Cell. 2012 Mar 9. .PMID: 22408227

Methods Mol Biol. 2011;734:303-15. Morphological and molecular genetic analysis of epigenetic switching of the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans. Hnisz D, Tscherner M, Kuchler K. PMID: 21468996

FEBS Lett. 2011 Mar 9;585(5):797-802. Epub 2011 Feb 11. Candida albicans Zcf37, a zinc finger protein, is required for stabilization of the white state. Wang H, Song W, Huang G, Zhou Z, Ding Y, Chen J. PMID: 21315072

Original comment by: dinglis

[gocentral]

Hi Diane - we've just been discussing this in the office...for the cell shape, we do have a 'regulation of cell shape' term you could use in an involved in term, but I think you're really talking about is establishment or maintenance of cell type. We think that the establishment of the cell type is the phenotypic switch itself, so what we would need is an additional term for the maintenance of that cell type.

What I'm not sure about is whether the maintenance would be considered part_of phenotype switching or not. Where would you consider phenotypic switching to start and end?

Original comment by: jl242

[gocentral]

The switch really begins with changes in cell morphology and altered gene expression patterns and ends when the morphology of a population of cells has reverted back to the default state, accompanied by altered expression patterns, etc....

The issue is that assays for phenotypic switching often involve the assessment of cell morphology in addition to mating behavior. Since morphology is the read-out, it seems appropriate that the term describing this function be a maintenance of cell shape term.

So the new term could be 'establishment or maintenance of cell shape involved in phenotypic switching?"

Does that clarify things?

Diane

Original comment by: dinglis

[gocentral]

Thanks Diane, that does make things clearer. I think I'll add a line to the end of the definition of phenotypic switching, to incorporate what you say below:

Phenotypic switching begins with with changes in cell morphology and altered gene expression patterns and ends when the morphology of a population of cells has reverted back to the default state, accompanied by altered expression patterns.

In which case I think it's fine to make a part_of child to phenotypic switching - 'establishment or maintenance of cell type'. I guess a potential sibling to this might be 'reversion of cell type to default state involved in phenotypic switching' - shall I add that too?

Original comment by: jl242

[gocentral]

That sounds good to me. The reverse term also would be nice.

Thanks,

Diane

Original comment by: dinglis

[gocentral]

Added:

establishment or maintenance of cell type involved in phenotypic switching ; GO:0044663 reversion of cell type to default state involved in phenotypic switching ; GO:0044664

Changed definition of GO:0036166 as described.

Original comment by: jl242

[gocentral]

• milestone: --> AspGD/CGD
• status: open --> closed-accepted

Original comment by: jl242