Modulation of phagosomal pH by Candida albicans promotes hyphal morphogenesis and requires Stp2p, a regulator of amino acid transport.

ABSTRACT: Candida albicans, the most important fungal pathogen of humans, has a unique interaction with macrophages in which phagocytosis induces a switch from the yeast to hyphal form, allowing it to escape by rupturing the immune cell. While a variety of factors induce this switch in vitro, including neutral pH, it is not clear what triggers morphogenesis within the macrophage where the acidic environment should inhibit this transition. In vitro, C. albicans grown in similar conditions in which amino acids are the primary carbon source generate large quantities of ammonia to raise the extracellular pH and induce the hyphal switch. We show here that C. albicans cells neutralize the macrophage phagosome and that neutral pH is a key inducer of germination in phagocytosed cells by using a mutant lacki

SUBMITTER: Vylkova S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3953444 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature