title: Phenotypic diversity and correlation between white-opaque switching and the CAI microsatellite locus in Candida albicans.
abstract: Candida albicans is a commensal fungal pathogen that is often found as part of the human microbial flora. The aim of the present study was to establish a relationship between diverse genotypes and phenotypes of clinical isolates of C. albicans. Totally 231 clinical isolates were collected and used for genotyping and phenotypic switching analysis. Based on the microsatellite locus (CAI) genotyping assay, 65 different genotypes were identified, and some dominant types were found in certain human niches. For example, the genotypes of 30-44 and 30-45 were enriched in vaginal infection samples. C. albicans has a number of morphological forms including the single-celled yeasts, multicellular filaments, white, and opaque cell types. The relationship between the CAI genotype and the ability to undergo phenotypic switching was examined in the clinical isolates. We found that the strains with longer CAA/G repeats in both alleles of the CAI locus were more opaque competent. We also discovered that some MTL heterozygous (a/alpha) isolates could undergo white-opaque switching when grown on regular culture medium (containing glucose as the sole carbon source). Our study establishes a link between phenotypic switching and genotypes of the CAI microsatellite locus in clinical isolates of C. albicans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Peking University People's Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
authors.forename: Guobo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tao
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Peking University People's Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jianzhong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Peking University People's Hospital, Beijing, China. lhoumin@sina.cn.
authors.forename: Houmin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China. huanggh@im.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Guanghua
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D002176:Candida albicans / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology*; D002177:Candidiasis / Q000382:microbiology; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005787:Gene Frequency; D056426:Genetic Loci; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D010641:Phenotype
keywords: CAI microsatellite locus; Candida albicans; Genotypic diversity; Phenotypic switching
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