Journal article
The closely related species Candida albicans and Candida dubliniensis can mate
Eukaryotic cell, Vol.3(4), pp.1015-1027
08/2004
DOI: 10.1128/EC.3.4.1015-1027.2004
PMCID: PMC500882
PMID: 15302834
Abstract
Because Candida dubliniensis is closely related to Candida albicans, we tested whether it underwent white-opaque switching and mating and whether white-opaque switching depended on MTL homozygosity and mating depended on switching, as they do in C. albicans. We also tested whether C. dubliniensis could mate with C. albicans. Sequencing revealed that the MTLalpha locus of C. dubliniensis was highly similar to that of C. albicans. Hybridization with the MTLa1, MTLa2, MTLalpha1, and MTLalpha2 open reading frames of C. albicans further revealed that, as in C. albicans, natural strains of C. dubliniensis exist as a/alpha, a/a, and alpha/alpha, but the proportion of MTL homozygotes is 33%, 10 times the frequency of natural C. albicans strains. C. dubliniensis underwent white-opaque switching, and, as in C. albicans, the switching was dependent on MTL homozygosis. C. dubliniensis a/a and alpha/alpha cells also mated, and, as in C. albicans, mating was dependent on a switch from white to opaque. However, white-opaque switching occurred at unusually high frequencies, opaque cell growth was frequently aberrant, and white-opaque switching in many strains was camouflaged by an additional switching system. Mating of C. dubliniensis was far less frequent in suspension cultures, due to the absence of mating-dependent clumping. Mating did occur, however, at higher frequencies on agar or on the skin of newborn mice. The increases in MTL homozygosity, the increase in switching frequencies, the decrease in the quality of switching, and the decrease in mating efficiency all reflected a general deterioration in the regulation of developmental processes, very probably due to the very high frequency of recombination and genomic reorganization characteristic of C. dubliniensis. Finally, interspecies mating readily occurred between opaque C. dubliniensis and C. albicans strains of opposite mating type in suspension, on agar, and on mouse skin. Remarkably, the efficiency of interspecies mating was higher than intraspecies C. dubliniensis mating, and interspecies karyogamy occurred readily with apparently the same sequence of nuclear migration, fusion, and division steps observed during intraspecies C. albicans and C. dubliniensis mating and Saccharomyces cerevisiae mating.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- The closely related species Candida albicans and Candida dubliniensis can mate
- Creators
- Claude Pujol - University of IowaKarla J Daniels - University of IowaShawn R Lockhart - University of IowaThyagarajan Srikantha - University of IowaJoshua B Radke - University of IowaJeremy Geiger - University of IowaDavid R Soll - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Eukaryotic cell, Vol.3(4), pp.1015-1027
- DOI
- 10.1128/EC.3.4.1015-1027.2004
- PMID
- 15302834
- PMCID
- PMC500882
- NLM abbreviation
- Eukaryot Cell
- ISSN
- 1535-9778
- eISSN
- 1535-9786
- Publisher
- American Society for Microbiology
- Grant note
- R01 DE014219 / NIDCR NIH HHS AI 2392 / NIAID NIH HHS DE 14219 / NIDCR NIH HHS
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 08/2004
- Academic Unit
- Emergency Medicine; Biology
- Record Identifier
- 9984296976202771
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