Yujie Zhou, Min Liao, Chengguang Zhu, Yao Hu, Ting Tong, Xian Peng, Mingyun Li, Mingye Feng, Lei Cheng, Biao Ren, Xuedong Zhou
The hyphal development of Candida albicans (C. albicans) has been considered as an essential virulent factor for host cell damage. However, the missing link between hyphae and virulence of C. albicans is also been discovered. Here, we identified that the null mutants of ERG3 and ERG11, two key genes in ergosterol biosynthesis pathway, can form typical hyphae but failed to cause the oral mucosal infection in vitro and in vivo for the first time. In particular, the erg3Δ/Δ and erg11Δ/Δ strains co-cultured with epithelial cells significantly reduced the adhesion, damage, and cytokine (interleukin-1α (IL-1α)) production, whereas the invasion was not affected in vitro...
March 16, 2018: International Journal of Oral Science