0000000001142448
AUTHOR
M. Micaela Gómez García
Differentiation of Candida parapsilosis, C. orthopsilosis, and C. metapsilosis by specific PCR amplification of the RPS0 intron
Although Candida parapsilosis is the most prevalent among the 3 species of the *psilosis group, studies applying DNA-based diagnostic techniques with isolates previously identified as C. parapsilosis have revealed that both C. orthopsilosis and C. metapsilosis account for 0-10% of all these isolates, depending on the geographical area. Differences in the degrees of antifungal susceptibility and virulence have been found, so a more precise identification is required. In a first approach, we reidentified 38 randomly chosen clinical isolates, previously identified as C. parapsilosis, using the RPO2 (CA2) RAPD marker. Among them, we reclassified 4 as C. metapsilosis and 5 as C. orthopsilosis. W…
Isolation of aCandida albicans gene, tightly linked toURA3, coding for a putative transcription factor that suppresses aSaccharomyces cerevisiaeaft1 mutation
A pathogen such as C. albicans needs an ef®cient mechanism of iron uptake in an iron- restricted environment such as is the human body. A ferric-reductase activity regulated by iron and copper, and analogous to that in S. cerevisiae, has been described in C. albicans. We have developed an in-plate protocol for the isolation of clones that complement an aft1 mutation in S. cerevisiae that makes cells dependent on iron for growth. After transformation of S. cerevisiae aft1 with a C. albicans library, we have selected clones that grow in conditions of iron de®ciency and share an identical plasmid, pIRO1, with a 4500 bp insert containing the URA3 gene and an ORF (IRO1) responsible for the suppr…