Phenotypic Plasticity Regulates Candida albicans Interactions and Virulence in the Vertebrate Host.

ABSTRACT: Phenotypic diversity is critical to the lifestyles of many microbial species, enabling rapid responses to changes in environmental conditions. In the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans, cells exhibit heritable switching between two phenotypic states, white and opaque, which yield differences in mating, filamentous growth, and interactions with immune cells in vitro. Here, we address the in vivo virulence properties of the two cell states in a zebrafish model of infection. Multiple attributes were compared including the stability of phenotypic states, filamentation, virulence, dissemination, and phagocytosis by immune cells, and phenotypes equated across three different host temperatures. Importantly, we found that both white and opaque cells could establish a lethal systemic infection.

SUBMITTER: Mallick EM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4880793 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature