A Fox2-Dependent Fatty Acid [beta]-Oxidation Pathway Coexists Both in Peroxisomes and Mitochondria of the Ascomycete Yeast Candida lusitaniae

It is generally admitted that the ascomycete yeasts of the subphylum Saccharomycotina possess a single fatty acid [beta]-oxidation pathway located exclusively in peroxisomes, and that they lost mitochondrial [beta]-oxidation early during evolution. In this work, we showed that mutants of the opportunistic pathogenic yeast Candida lusitaniae which lack the multifunctional enzyme Fox2p, a key enzyme of the [beta]-oxidation pathway, were still able to grow on fatty acids as the sole carbon source, suggesting that C. lusitaniae harbored an alternative pathway for fatty acid catabolism. By assaying .sup.14 C.sub.[alpha] -palmitoyl-CoA consumption, we demonstrated that fatty acid catabolism takes place in both peroxisomal and mitochondrial subcellular fractions. We then observed that a fox2[DELTA] null mutant was unable to catabolize fatty acids in the mitochondrial fraction, thus indicating that the mitochondrial pathway was Fox2p-dependent. This finding was confirmed by the immunodetection of Fox2p in protein extracts obtained from purified peroxisomal and mitochondrial fractions. Finally, immunoelectron microscopy provided evidence that Fox2p was localized in both peroxisomes and mitochondria. This work constitutes the first demonstration of the existence of a Fox2p-dependent mitochondrial [beta]-oxidation pathway in an ascomycetous yeast, C. lusitaniae. It also points to the existence of an alternative fatty acid catabolism pathway, probably located in peroxisomes, and functioning in a Fox2p-independent manner.