Candida albicans cells of opposite mating types are thought to conjugate during infection in mammalian hosts, but paradoxically, the mating-competent opaque state is not stable at mammalian body temperatures. We found that anaerobic conditions stabilize the opaque state at 37 degrees C, block production of farnesol, and permit in vitro mating at 37 degrees C at efficiencies of up to 84%. Aerobi...

West Australian sandalwood (Santalum spicatum) has long been exploited for its fragrant, sesquiterpene-rich heartwood; however sandalwood fragrance qualities vary substantially, which is of interest to the sandalwood industry. We investigated metabolite profiles of trees from the arid northern and southeastern and semi-arid southwestern regions of West Australia for patterns in composition and ...

The polymorphic commensal fungus Candida albicans causes life-threatening disease via bloodstream and intra-abdominal infections in immunocompromised and transplant patients. Although host immune evasion is a common strategy used by successful human fungal pathogens, C. albicans provokes recognition by host immune cells less capable of destroying it. To accomplish this, C. albicans white cells ...

A series of synthetic molecules combining a geranyl backbone with a heterocyclic or oxime head group are quorum-sensing molecules that block the yeast to mycelium transition in the dimorphic fungus Candida albicans. A number of the analogs have an IC50 ≤ 10 μM, a level of potency essentially identical to the natural quorum sensing signal, the sesquiterpene farnesol. Two of the most potent analo...

Candida albicans, the most prevalent fungal pathogen, undergoes yeast-to-hyphal switch which has long been identified as a key fungal virulence factor. We showed here that the lichen-derived small molecule retigeric acid B (RAB) acted as an inhibitor that significantly inhibited the filamentation of C. albicans, leading to the prolonged survival of nematodes infected by C. albicans. Quantitativ...

Flowers of the kiwifruit species Actinidia chinensis produce a mixture of sesquiterpenes derived from farnesyl diphosphate (FDP) and monoterpenes derived from geranyl diphosphate (GDP). The tertiary sesquiterpene alcohol (E)-nerolidol was the major emitted volatile detected by headspace analysis. Contrastingly, in solvent extracts of the flowers, unusually high amounts of (E,E)-farnesol were ob...

Quorum sensing through farnesol, a quorum sensing molecule, regulates virulence and morphogenesis in Candida albicans. Farnesol and high cell density of C. albicans repress hyphal formation in a minimal medium containing N-acetyl-D-glucosamine. Global transcription profiling at an early stage of quorum sensing by C. albicans in the N-acetyl-D-glucosamine medium was analyzed. Twenty-two of a tot...

Quorum sensing (QS) is a mechanism of microbial communication dependent on cell density that can regulate several behaviors in bacteria such as secretion of virulence factors, biofilm formation, competence and bioluminescence. The existence of fungal QS systems was revealed ten years ago after the discovery that farnesol controls filamentation in the pathogenic polymorphic fungus Candida albica...

Cell-free preparations of both Rhizoctonia solani, a sterol-synthesizing fungus, and Phytophthora cinnamomi, a non-sterol-synthesizing fungus, incubated in the presence of [2(-14)C]mevalonate and iodacetamide, converted the mevalonate into labelled mevalonate 5-phosphate, mevalonate 5-pyrophosphate and isopentenyl pyrophosphate. In the absence of iodoacetamide, but under anaerobic conditions, t...

We report on juvenile hormone (JH) biosynthesis from long-chain intermediates by specific reproductive tissues and the corpora allata (CA) prepared from adult longhorned beetles, Apriona germari. The testes, male accessory glands (MAGs), ovaries, and CA contained the long-chain intermediates in the JH biosynthetic pathway, farnesoic acid (FA), methyl farnesoate (MF), and JH III. The testes and ...