Although Candida albicans cph1/cph1 efg1/efg1 mutant cells are not lethal to mice, they proliferated in infected mice instead of simply being cleared by the host immune system. Here, we have shown that the cph1/cph1 efg1/efg1 mutant partially protects mice from systemic infections by the lethal wild-type Candida albicans cells. Our results further indicate that a second dose of the cph1/cph1 ef...

The transition of Candida albicans from a yeast to a hyphal form is controlled by several transcriptional factors, including the key regulators Cph1 and Efg1, and is considered an important virulence attribute. These factors, especially Efg1, regulate the expression of hyphal-associated genes e.g. SAP4-SAP6. In order to investigate the relevance of these transcriptional regulators for hyphal-in...

Efg1 (a member of the APSES family) is an important regulator of hyphal growth and of the white-to-opaque transition in Candida albicans and very closely related species. We show that in Candida parapsilosis Efg1 is a major regulator of a different morphological switch at the colony level, from a concentric to smooth morphology. The rate of switching is at least 20-fold increased in an efg1 kno...

Fungi from the genus Candida are common members of the human microbiota; however, they are also important opportunistic pathogens in immunocompromised hosts. Several morphological transitions have been linked to the ability of these fungi to occupy the different ecological niches in the human body. The transcription factor Efg1 from the APSES family plays a central role in the transcription cir...

The ERG3 gene in Candida albicans was identified as a gene whose mRNA level was higher in the cph1/cph1 efg1/efg1 double mutant than in the wild-type cells. Further study showed that Efg1, but not Cph1, negatively regulated ERG3. Mutations in EFG1 consistently increased the susceptibility of the cells to antifungal agents.

Efg1 is essential for hyphal development in the human pathogen Candida albicans under most conditions. Efg1 is related to basic helix-loop-helix regulators, and therefore most workers presume that Efg1 is a transcription factor. Here we confirm that Efg1 is a DNA binding protein that can interact specifically with the E box.

Efg1 is essential for hyphal development and virulence in the human pathogenic fungus Candida albicans. How Efg1 regulates gene expression is unknown. Here, we show that Efg1 interacts with components of the nucleosome acetyltransferase of H4 (NuA4) histone acetyltransferase (HAT) complex in both yeast and hyphal cells. Deleting YNG2, a subunit of the NuA4 HAT module, results in a significant d...

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 E...

Disseminated candidiasis is associated with 30-40% mortality in severely immunocompromised patients. Among the causal agents, Candida albicans is the dominant one. Various animal models have been developed for investigating gene functions in C. albicans. Zebrafish injection models have increasingly been applied in elucidating C. albicans pathogenesis because of the conserved immunity, prolific ...

We identified a gene of the fungal pathogen Candida albicans, designated EFG1, whose high-level expression stimulates pseudohyphal morphogenesis in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In a central region the deduced Efg1 protein is highly homologous to the StuA and Phd1/Sok2 proteins that regulate morphogenesis of Aspergillus nidulans and S. cerevisiae, respectively. The core of the conserved r...