Alternative mating type configurations (a/α versus a/a or α/α) of Candida albicans result in alternative biofilms regulated by different pathways.

ABSTRACT: Similar multicellular structures can evolve within the same organism that may have different evolutionary histories, be controlled by different regulatory pathways, and play similar but nonidentical roles. In the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans, a quite extraordinary example of this has occurred. Depending upon the configuration of the mating type locus (a/α versus a/a or α/α), C. albicans forms alternative biofilms that appear similar morphologically, but exhibit dramatically different characteristics and are regulated by distinctly different signal transduction pathways. Biofilms formed by a/α cells are impermeable to molecules in the size range of 300 Da to 140 kDa, are poorly penetrated by human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs), and are resistant to antifungals. In contrast,

SUBMITTER: Yi S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3149048 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature