Nature: No Haploid Phase in Candida Albicans
Candida albicans is a diploid fungus that grows both as yeast and filamentous cells. It is also a causal agent of opportunistic oral and genital infections in humans. It has high mortality with 45 percent and is one of the four main microbial pathogens in hospital acquired infections. However, the treatment is not ideal, even worse is its prevalence of worldwide drug-resistance.
Fortunately, from the perspective of Molecular and Cell Biology, scientists have identified the problem that had eluded yeast scientists for the past century. They gained the result by constructing stable haploid strains of Candida albicans.
Scientists found a special feature of Candida albicans: they can’t find any haploid phase in Candida albicans which differs from others. As well known, nearly all other fungi have a haploid and a diploid phase in their life cycle, enabling the haploid cells to mate and generate genetic variations. Without a haploid phase, it would be extremely difficult for scientists to carry out genetic screens in fungi as this would require the precise targeting of both copies of a gene in a diploid organism to be able to observe a change, thus hindering the progress of the study of the virulence and delaying the development of effective treatment of fungal infections.
Just because the feature that without haploid phase in Candida albicans, scientists will now be able to easily target just one copy of the gene to observe a change, allowing for more successful screening and speeding up the discovery of targets for the development of drugs.
The original research findings can be found in the 30 January online issue of Nature, under the title, “The ‘obligate diploid’ Candida albicans forms mating-competent haploids”.
Article Link: Nature: No Haploid Phase in Candida Albicans
