title: Characterization of Candida albicans colony-morphology mutants and their hybrids.
abstract: The collection wild-type strain of Candida albicans was used to obtain auxotrophic and colony-morphology mutants by 'nitrosoguanidine' treatment. Intraspecific protoplast fusion induced by Ca(2+)-poly(ethyleneglycol) was carried out in various pairings between the auxotrophic strain producing smooth colonies and containing blastospores and the colony-morphology mutants containing a mixture of blastospores and pseudohyphae or only hyphae. Hybrids exhibiting full or partial complementation were obtained when mutants producing smooth colonies and colony-morphology variants of different origins were fused. The mutation responsible for the colony-morphology character (if various types of colony morphomutants were crossed) proved to be recessive or semidominant. Representative hybrids exhibited elevated DNA contents as measured by flow cytometry. To illustrate various cell types, and especially the intermediate one (never observed in natural isolates), a preparation method was further developed for scanning electron microscopic studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of General and Environmental Microbiology, University of Pécs, 7601 Pécs, Hungary.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Novák
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vágvölgyi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pesti
mesh_terms: D002176:Candida albicans / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development*; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D003470:Culture Media; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000235:genetics; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D005816:Genetic Complementation Test; D008769:Methylnitronitrosoguanidine / Q000494:pharmacology; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D009154:Mutation; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D004271:DNA, Fungal; D008769:Methylnitronitrosoguanidine; D011092:Polyethylene Glycols