BACKGROUND Candida-associated denture stomatitis is a frequent infectious disease. Treatment of this oral condition is difficult because failures and recurrences are common. The aim of this study was to test the in vitro antifungal activity of pure constituents of essentials oils. METHODS Eight terpenic derivatives (carvacrol, farnesol, geraniol, linalool, menthol, menthone, terpinen-4-ol, an...

Human platelets convert [l-W]or [2J4C]acetate to labeled CO2 and fatty acids; the latter, in turn, become esterified to acylglycerols and phospholipids. However, acetate apparently does not reach mevalonate in the sterol pathway. By contrast, with [2J4C]mevalonate as substrate, there is labeling of farnesol, farnesoic acid, squalene, lanosterol, and dihydrolanosterol in the chloroform-soluble f...

The transcription factor SKN7 is a highly conserved protein among fungi and was initially recognized as a response regulator that protects cells from oxidative stress and maintains cell wall integrity in yeast. Orthologs of SKN7 are extensively present in biocontrol agents of plant pathogens, but they had not been functionally characterized. Here, we identified and characterized the transcripti...

We detail an investigation of a peptide-based catalyst 6 that is effective for the site- (>100:1:1) and enantioselective epoxidation (86% ee) of farnesol. Studies of the substrate scope exhibited by the catalyst are included, along with an exploration of optimized reaction conditions. Mechanistic studies are reported, including relative rate determinations for the catalyst and propionic acid, a...

Candida albicans is frequently detected with heavy infection of Streptococcus mutans in plaque-biofilms from children affected with early-childhood caries, a prevalent and costly oral disease. The presence of C. albicans enhances S. mutans growth within biofilms, yet the chemical interactions associated with bacterial accumulation remain unclear. Thus, this study was conducted to investigate ho...

The regulation of morphogenesis in the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans is under investigation to better understand how the switch between budding and hyphal growth is linked to virulence. Therefore, in this study we examined the ability of C. albicans to undergo a distinct type of morphogenesis to form large thick-walled chlamydospores whose role in infection is unclear, but they act as ...

Phytophthora cinnamomi, a member of the Pythiacease, does not synthesize sterols. Small amounts of squalene, but no squalene epoxide or sterol, were isolated from the dried mycelium of this fungus after growth in sterol-free medium. The dried mycelium of Rhizoctonia solani, a sterol-synthesizing fungus grown under the same conditions, contained small amounts of squalene and squalene epoxide and...

The intermediate, discovered by Rilling, between farnesyl pyrophosphate and squalene was synthesized in milligram quantities with yeast subcellular particles from farnesylJ4Cpyrophosphate and from farnesyl-l-3H&4C-pyrophosphate. The 3H : l4C ratio in the new squalene precursor was found to be identical with that in the farnesyl pyrophosphate, whereas the ratio in squalene was close to the expec...

The polymorphic fungus Candida albicans is one of the most versatile opportunistic pathogens in humans. Many organs of the human body are potential targets for infection by this pathogen, but infection is commonly localized in the gastrointestinal tract, an environment providing anaerobic growth conditions. We describe a chemically defined anaerobic growth medium for four strains of Candida alb...

Direct analysis in real time (DART) is a plasma-based ambient ionization technique that enables rapid ionization of small molecules with high sample throughput. In this work, DART was coupled to an orthogonal (oa) time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer and the system was optimized for analyzing a vital hormonal regulator in insects, juvenile hormone (JH) III and its terpene precursors, namely, ...