title: Stress-induced gene expression in Candida albicans: absence of a general stress response.
abstract: We used transcriptional profiling to investigate the response of the fungal pathogen Candida albicans to temperature and osmotic and oxidative stresses under conditions that permitted >60% survival of the challenged cells. Each stress generated the transient induction of a specific set of genes including classic markers observed in the stress responses of other organisms. We noted that the classical hallmarks of the general stress response observed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae are absent from C. albicans; no C. albicans genes were significantly induced in a common response to the three stresses. This observation is supported by our inability to detect stress cross-protection in C. albicans. Similarly, in C. albicans there is essentially no induction of carbohydrate reserves like glycogen and trehalose in response to a mild stress, unlike the situation in S. cerevisiae. Thus C. albicans lacks the strong general stress response exhibited by S. cerevisiae.
authors.affiliation: Eukaryotic Genetics Group, NRC Biotechnology Research Institute, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H4P 2R2.
authors.forename: Brice
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Enjalbert
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nantel
authors.forename: Malcolm
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Whiteway
mesh_terms: D002176:Candida albicans / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D050260:Carbohydrate Metabolism; D015870:Gene Expression; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005800:Genes, Fungal; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D009997:Osmotic Pressure; D018384:Oxidative Stress; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D013045:Species Specificity; D013696:Temperature