C. albicans binds various bacteria, including the oral commensal Streptococcus gordonii. Published reports documented the role of C. albicans Als3 and S. gordonii SspB in this interaction, and the importance of the Als N-terminal domain (NT-Als) in C. albicans adhesion. Here, we demonstrate that Als1 also binds S. gordonii. We also describe use of the NT-Als crystal structure to design mutation...

Aluminium (Al) rhizotoxicity coincides with low pH; however, it is unclear whether plant tolerance to these two factors is controlled by the same mechanism. To address this question, the Al-resistant alr104 mutant, two Al-sensitive mutants (als3 and als5), and wild-type Arabidopsis thaliana were compared in long-term exposure (solution culture) and in short-term exposure experiments (H(+) and K...

Aluminium (Al) toxicity is a global agricultural problem that occurs in acid soil environments and severely limits root growth and crop productivity. The isolation and characterization of a gene, ALS3, which is absolutely required by Arabidopsis seedlings for growth in an Al-toxic environment was reported previously. Since the als3-1 loss-of-function mutant has extreme root growth inhibition ev...

candida albicans is an opportunistic fungi that is able to thrive in many host niches, including the skin, mucosal, surfaces, the blood stream and internal organs. agglutinin-like sequence (als) genes which could play a role in forming biofilms, adherence to host surfaces as a virulence factor and antifungal drug resistant. the purpose of the present study was to evaluate the presence als1 and ...

Candida albicans is an opportunistic fungi that is able to thrive in many host niches, including the skin, mucosal, surfaces, the blood stream and internal organs. Agglutinin-like sequence (ALS) genes which could play a role in forming biofilms, adherence to host surfaces as a virulence factor and antifungal drug resistant. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the presence ALS1 and ...

OBJECTIVES Systemic candidal infections are a common problem in hospitalized patients due to central venous catheters fabricated using silicone biomaterial (SB). We therefore evaluated the effect of human serum on C. albicans biofilm morphology, growth, and the expression of virulence-related genes on SB in vitro. METHODS We cultivated C. albicans SC5314 (wild-type strain, WT) and its derivat...

background: the most important virulence factor which plays a central role in candida albicans pathogenesis is the ability of this yeast to alternate between unicellular yeast and filamentous hyphal forms. efg1 protein is thought to be the main positive regulating transcription factor, which is responsible for regulating hyphal-specific gene expression under most conditions. als3 is one of the ...

During hematogenously disseminated disease, Candida albicans infects most organs, including the brain. We discovered that a C. albicans vps51Δ/Δ mutant had significantly increased tropism for the brain in the mouse model of disseminated disease. To investigate the mechanisms of this enhanced trafficking to the brain, we studied the interactions of wild-type C. albicans and the vps51Δ/Δ mutant w...

Aluminum (Al) toxicity is a global problem severely limiting agricultural productivity in acid-soil regions comprising upwards of 50% of the world's arable land [1, 2]. Although Al-exclusion mechanisms have been intensively studied [3-9], little is known about tolerance to internalized Al, which is predicted to be mechanistically complex because of the plethora of predicted cellular targets for...

The biofilm of Candida albicans has been implicated as a source of bloodstream infections. Dispersal cells, as the final biofilm stage, are responsible for its spread. The aim of this study was to compare the susceptibility of biofilm and dispersal cells vs. planktonic cells (overnight liquid culture) of C. albicans to caspofungin (CAS) and fluconazole (FLU) when the drugs were added: i) at the...