Farnesol restores wild-type colony morphology to 96% of Candida albicans colony morphology variants recovered following treatment with mutagens.
Candida albicans is a diploid fungus that undergoes a morphological transition between budding yeast, hyphal, and pseudohyphal forms. The morphological transition is strongly correlated with virulence and is regulated in part by quorum sensing. Candida albicans produces and secretes farnesol that regulates the yeast to mycelia morphological transition. Mutants that fail to synthesize or respond to farnesol could be locked in the filamentous mode. To test this hypothesis, a collection of C. albicans mutants were isolated that have altered colony morphologies indicative of the presence of hyphal cells under environmental conditions where C. albicans normally grows only as yeasts. All mutants were characterized for their ability to respond to farnesol. Of these, 95.9% fully or partially reverted to wild-type morphology on yeast malt (YM) agar plates supplemented with farnesol. All mutants that respond to farnesol regained their hyphal morphology when restreaked on YM plates without farnesol. The observation that farnesol remedial mutants are so common (95.9%) relative to mutants that fail to respond to farnesol (4.1%) suggests that farnesol activates and (or) induces a pathway that can override many of the morphogenesis defects in these mutants. Additionally, 9 mutants chosen at random were screened for farnesol production. Two mutants failed to produce detectable levels of farnesol.
Jensen
Ellen C
EC
School of Biological Sciences, College of Saint Benedict's and Saint John's University, Collegeville, MN 56321, USA.
Hornby
Jacob M
JM
Pagliaccetti
Nicole E
NE
Wolter
Chuleeon M
CM
Nickerson
Kenneth W
KW
Atkin
Audrey L
AL
D002176:Candida albicans / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology*; D005020:Ethyl Methanesulfonate / Q000494:pharmacology; D005204:Farnesol / Q000378:metabolism*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D025301:Hyphae / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development; D009153:Mutagens / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009608:Nitrous Acid / Q000494:pharmacology; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000187:drug effects; D014466:Ultraviolet Rays
D009153:Mutagens; D005204:Farnesol; D005020:Ethyl Methanesulfonate; D009608:Nitrous Acid