Phenotypic plasticity is posed to be a vital trait of cancer cells such as circulating tumor cells, allowing them to undergo reversible or irreversible switching between phenotypic states important for tumorigenesis and metastasis. While irreversible phenotypic switching can be detected by studying the genome, reversible phenotypic switching is often difficult to examine due to its dynamic natu...

Phenotypic switching has been linked to the virulence of many pathogens, including fungi. However, it has not been conclusively shown to occur in vivo or to influence the outcome of infection. Cryptococcus neoformans undergoes phenotypic switching in vitro to colony types that differ in their virulence in mice. In this study, we asked whether C. neoformans undergoes phenotypic switching in vivo...

Phenotypic switching has been observed in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes and involves stochastic switching between two or more alternative and heritable phenotypes, usually distinguished by surface antigenicity. This strategy, generally adopted by pathogens to escape recognition by the immune system and to adapt to a hostile host environment, results from spontaneous alterations in gene expres...

Candida albicans is the most frequent opportunistic fungal agent in human being. One of its virulence factors is phenotypic switching. In this study, we investigated the susceptibility of different phenotypes of C. albicans, obtained from clinical specimens, to fluconazole (FLZ) and voriconazole (VRZ) with microdilution reference method. In this study, 281 C. albicans of six different phenotype...