Talaromyces marneffei is the only dimorphic species in its genus and causes a fatal systemic mycosis named talaromycosis. Our previous study indicated that knockdown of AcuD gene (encodes isocitrate lyase of glyoxylate bypass) of T. marneffei by RNA interference approach attenuated the virulence of T. marneffei, while the virulence of the AcuD knockout strains was not studied. In this study, T. marneffei-zebrafish infection model was successfully established through hindbrain microinjection with different amounts of T. marneffei yeast cells. After co-incubated at 28°C, the increasing T. marneffei inoculum doses result in greater larval mortality; and hyphae generation might be one virulence factor involved in T. marneffei-zebrafish infection. Moreover, the results demonstrated that the virulence of the ΔAcuD was significantly attenuated in this Zebrafish infection model.

马尔尼菲篮状菌在其属唯一的二型品种，并导致名为talaromycosis致命的全身性霉菌病。我们以前的研究表明的敲低AcuD的基因（编码异柠檬酸乙醛酸旁路的裂合酶）T.马尔尼菲通过RNA干扰的方式衰减的毒力T.马尔尼菲，而毒力AcuD敲除菌株中没有研究。在这项研究中，通过后脑显微注射不同量的马尔尼菲酵母菌成功地建立了马尔尼菲斑马鱼-斑马鱼感染模型。在28°C共同孵育后，不断增加的T. marneffei接种剂量会导致更大的幼虫死亡率；菌丝的产生可能是马尔尼菲斑马鱼感染的一种致病因子。此外，结果表明，在该斑马鱼感染模型中，ΔAcuD的毒力显着减弱。