Phenotypic Profiling Reveals that Candida albicans Opaque Cells Represent a Metabolically Specialized Cell State Compared to Default White Cells.

ABSTRACT: The white-opaque switch is a bistable, epigenetic transition affecting multiple traits in Candida albicans including mating, immunogenicity, and niche specificity. To compare how the two cell states respond to external cues, we examined the fitness, phenotypic switching, and filamentation properties of white cells and opaque cells under 1,440 different conditions at 25°C and 37°C. We demonstrate that white and opaque cells display striking differences in their integration of metabolic and thermal cues, so that the two states exhibit optimal fitness under distinct conditions. White cells were fitter than opaque cells under a wide range of environmental conditions, including growth at various pHs and in the presence of chemical stresses or antifungal drugs. This difference was exacerbated at

SUBMITTER: Ene IV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5120136 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature