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The lysine biosynthesis pathway via α-aminoadipate in fungi is considered an attractive target for antifungal drugs due to its absence in mammalian hosts. The iron-sulfur cluster-containing enzyme homoaconitase converts homocitrate to homoisocitrate in the lysine biosynthetic pathway, and is encoded by LYS4 in the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In this study, we identified the ortholog of LYS4 in the human fungal pathogen, Cryptococcus neoformans, and found that LYS4 expression is regulated by iron levels and by the iron-related transcription factors Hap3 and HapX. Deletion of the LYS4 gene resulted in lysine auxotrophy suggesting that Lys4 is essential for lysine biosynthesis. Our study also revealed that lysine uptake was mediated by two amino acid permeases, Aap2 and Aap3, and influenced by nitrogen catabolite repression (NCR). Furthermore, the lys4 mutant showed increased sensitivity to …