Abstract
Candida albicans is an opportunistic fungal pathogen that plays an important role in the early part of infectious process by extravagating and disseminating to the target organs, whereas hyphal forms appear to be required for the mortality resulting from a deep-seated infection. C. albicans morphogenesis is regulated by numerous environmental cues and other signaling pathways. We investigated the morphogenesis in C. albicans in the presence of serum at different temperatures (20 oC, 30 oC and 37 oC). C. albicans were also grown in simple growth medium 'SDB' and subsequently cultured from Fetal bovine serum and Soybeans dextrose broth (SDB) on Sabouraud dextrose agar, Yeast extract potato dextrose agar and Spider medium. The combination of serum and temperature is excellent at promoting the yeast to mycelial conversion and it also induces the expression of hyphal specific genes. Our results demonstrate that the combination of serum and each temperature provides a distinct proportion of blastospores, budding yeast cells, germ tube, pseudohyphae and true hyphal cells. Remarkable change in colonial pattern between the cells cultured after incubating in serum and the cells cultured after incubating in SDB was observed in SDA in contrast with YEPD and Spider medium. On most solid media, colonies of C. albicans are composed of three types of cells: budding yeast, pseudohyphae and hyphae. All three forms are also found in infected tissues, and the transition between these forms is a key for pathogenesis.
Highlights
Candida albicans is a diploid asexual and dimorphic fungal organism and can be in existence as unicellular yeast as well as in different filamentous forms (Molero et al, 1998)
When C. albicans was grown in serum (FBS) at 20 °C for 24 h, 63% of cells were remained in yeast form, 29.5% of cells started budding, 2.5% of cells produced pseudohyphae and 5.5% of cells formed germ tube (Figure 1)
While the number of blastospores or yeast cells, budding yeast cells and pseudohyphal cells were reduced to 38.5%, 20.5% and 9.5%, respectively (Figure 3), as compared to the growth of C. albicans at 20 °C (Figure 4)
Summary
Candida albicans is a diploid asexual and dimorphic fungal organism and can be in existence as unicellular yeast (blastospores and chlamydospores) as well as in different filamentous forms (hyphae, pseudohyphae) (Molero et al, 1998). The severity of C. albicans infection often depends on the status of the host’s immune system. The diversity in the pathogenicity of C. albicans strains suggests that strain related virulence factors do participate in disease severity (Navarro-Garcia et al, 2001). Morphogenesis has been a central point of research in C. albicans because.
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