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Through a glass opaquely: the biological significance of mating in Candida albicans.

Magee PT, Magee BB

Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Genetics, 6-160 Jackson Hall, 321 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA. ptm@cbs.umn.edu

Most Candida albicans strains are heterozygous at the MTL (mating-type-like) locus, but mating occurs in hemi- or homozygous strains. The white-opaque switch process is repressed by the heterodimer of the MTLa1 and MTLalpha2 gene products, while mating genes are induced by a2 and alpha1. Mating occurs in opaque cells and produces tetraploid progeny. A small percentage (3-7%) of clinical isolates are homozygous at the MTL locus and most are mating-competent. MTL gene expression is controlled in part by a gene which activates MTLalpha genes and represses MTLa genes in response to hemoglobin. A failure to find meiosis and the lack of evidence of mating in vivo, together with some of the properties of opaque cells, leads to the suggestion that mating may have persisted because the tightly associated switch facilitates the commensal lifestyle of this fungus.

Published 23 November 2004 in Curr Opin Microbiol, 7(6): 661-5.
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