Genome-wide gene expression profiling and a forward genetic screen show that differential expression of the sodium ion transporter Ena21 contributes to the differential tolerance of Candida albicans and Candida dubliniensis to osmotic stress.

Candida albicans is more pathogenic than Candida dubliniensis. However, this disparity in virulence is surprising given the high level of sequence conservation and the wide range of phenotypic traits shared by these two species. Increased sensitivity to environmental stresses has been suggested to be a possible contributory factor to the lower virulence of C. dubliniensis. In this study, we investigated, in the first comparison of C. albicans and C. dubliniensis by transcriptional profiling, global gene expression in each species when grown under conditions in which the two species exhibit differential stress tolerance. The profiles revealed similar core responses to stresses in both species, but differences in the amplitude of the general transcriptional responses to thermal, salt and oxidative stress. Differences in the regulation of specific stress genes were observed between the two species. In particular, ENA21, encoding a sodium ion transporter, was strongly induced in C. albicans but not in C. dubliniensis. In addition, ENA21 was identified in a forward genetic screen for C. albicans genomic sequences that increase salt tolerance in C. dubliniensis. Introduction of a single copy of CaENA21 was subsequently shown to be sufficient to confer salt tolerance upon C. dubliniensis.

Comparison of the epidemiology, drug resistance mechanisms, and virulence of Candida dubliniensis and Candida albicans.

Candida dubliniensis is a pathogenic yeast species that was first identified as a distinct taxon in 1995. Epidemiological studies have shown that C. dubliniensis is prevalent throughout the world and that it is primarily associated with oral carriage and oropharyngeal infections in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients. However, unlike Candida albicans, C. dubliniensis is rarely found in the oral microflora of normal healthy individuals and is responsible for as few as 2% of cases of candidemia (compared to approximately 65% for C. albicans). The vast majority of C. dubliniensis isolates identified to date are susceptible to all of the commonly used antifungal agents, however, reduced susceptibility to azole drugs has been observed in clinical isolates and can be readily induced in vitro. The primary mechanism of fluconazole resistance in C. dubliniensis has been shown to be overexpression of the major facilitator efflux pump Mdr1p. It has also been observed that a large number of C. dubliniensis strains express a non-functional truncated form of Cdr1p, and it has been demonstrated that this protein does not play a significant role in fluconazole resistance in the majority of strains examined to date. Data from a limited number of infection models reflect findings from epidemiological studies and suggest that C. dubliniensis is less pathogenic than C. albicans. The reasons for the reduced virulence of C. dubliniensis are not clear as it has been shown that the two species express a similar range of virulence factors. However, although C. dubliniensis produces hyphae, it appears that the conditions and dynamics of induction may differ from those in C. albicans. In addition, C. dubliniensis is less tolerant of environmental stresses such as elevated temperature and NaCl and H(2)O(2) concentration, suggesting that C. albicans may have a competitive advantage when colonising and causing infection in the human body. It is our hypothesis that a genomic comparison between these two closely-related species will help to identify virulence factors responsible for the far greater virulence of C. albicans and possibly identify factors that are specifically implicated in either superficial or systemic candidal infections.