LAMinar Flow: Sterol Transport in a Pathogenic Yeast

Cryptococcus neoformans is an important fungal pathogen, responsible for over 140,000 deaths per year worldwide. Like other yeasts, C. neoformans relies on ergosterol as its major membrane sterol and carefully regulates its synthesis and distribution. Ergosterol is also targeted by two of the three compound classes currently used to treat cryptococcal infection. We recently reported the discovery and characterization in C. neoformans of a single retrograde ergosterol transporter of the LAM family, Ysp2. Here we review these findings and discuss directions for future research, including the connections between processes that are perturbed by the absence of Ysp2 (which also abrogates cryptococcal virulence) and possible roles for Ysp2 and other, as yet unknown, lipid transport proteins in this organism.