Regulatory Circuits and Virulence in Candida albicans

描述（申请人的描述）：发现酵母白色念珠菌是一种 哺乳动物消化道中的浮游生物。也是最 常见的人类真菌病原体，引起粘膜和全身感染， 尤其是免疫功能低下的人。该建议包括三项研究 念珠菌的不同方面，其中每一个都涉及到 发病机制这些区域分别是：（1）花丝的气孔 形态转变，（2）快速产生多样性的机制，称为 “表型转换”和（3）念珠菌生物学特征的控制， MTL基因座是与S. 啤酒。该建议还包括制定两种方法 （念珠菌属的大规模遗传筛查和微阵列分析） 转录），其与标准分子生物学和 微生物技术将被用来解决这些问题。

DESCRIPTION (Applicant's Description): The yeast Candida albicans is found as a commensal organism in the digestive tract of mammals. It is also the most common human fungal pathogen, causing both mucosal and systemic infections, particularly in immunocompromised people. This proposal covers studies of three different aspects of Candida, each of which has been implicated in pathogenesis. These areas are (1) the revesible blostopore to filament morphological transitions, (2) a mechanism to rapidly generate diversity called "phenotypic switching" and (3) the control of features of Candida biology by the MTL locus, a genetic locus closely related to the MAT locus of S. cerevisiae. The proposal also covers the development of two methodologies (large scale genetic screening and microarray analysis of Candida transcription), which, in combination with standard molecular biological and microbiological techniques, will be used to address these problems.