Candida albicans: sex and survival in a rat model of colonisation

Candida;albicans;sex;mating;rat;oral;model

Rodrigues, Ely Montes ; Cannon, Richard ; Holmes, Ann ; Schmidt, J

University of Otago

关键词: Candida;    albicans;    sex;    mating;    rat;    oral;    model;   

Others  :  https://ourarchive.otago.ac.nz/bitstream/10523/4271/2/RodriguesEly2013PhD

美国|英语

来源: Otago University Research Archive

【 摘 要 】

Unlike for most animal species, sex is not an obligatory reproductive mechanism for fungi, and for some fungi the complex diversity of sexual and asexual reproductive mechanisms has yet to be unravelled. A classic example of this diversity is Candida albicans, an opportunistic, commensal yeast found in normal oral and gastrointestinal flora, which is capable of causing infections in immune compromised hosts. It was long believed that C. albicans is asexual existing exclusively as a diploid yeast. However, with the identification of a mating type-like locus homologous to those in sexually reproducing fungi, demonstration of mating in vitro, and the discovery that a morphology switch, from white to opaque, promotes mating, it is now hypothesised that C. albicans may possess a cryptic sexual cycle. No evidence of meiosis has been found, however, and thus any matants are probably produced via a parasexual cycle. The question is: can such a cycle confer advantages, or does it simply represent the