Surface control of blastospore attachment and ligand-mediated hyphae adhesion of Candida albicans.

Adhesion on a surface via nonspecific attachment or multiple ligand-receptor interactions is a critical event for fungal infection by Candida albicans. Here, we find that the tri(ethylene glycol)- and d-mannitol-terminated monolayers do not resist the blastospore attachment, but prevent the hyphae adhesion of C. albicans. The hyphae adhesion can be facilitated by tripeptide sequences of arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) covalently decorated on a background of tri(ethylene glycol)-terminated monolayers. This adhesion mediated by selected ligands is sensitive to the scrambling of peptide sequences, and is inhibited by the presence of cyclic RGD peptides in the solution.