Abstract
The human fungal pathogen Candida albicans encounters a wide range of pH stresses during its commensal and pathogenic lifestyles. It has been well studied that environmental pH regulates the yeast–filamentous growth transition in this fungus. White–opaque switching is another type of phenotypic transitions in C. albicans. White and opaque cells are two morphologically and functionally distinct cell types, which differ in many aspects including global gene expression profiles, virulence, mating competency, and susceptibility to antifungals. The switch between white and opaque cell types is heritable and epigenetically regulated. In a recently study, Sun et al. (Eukaryot Cell 14:1127–1134, 2015) reported that pH plays a critical role in the regulation of the white–opaque phenotypic switch and sexual mating in C. albicans via both the conserved Rim101-mediated pH sensing and cAMP signaling pathways. The effect of pH on the two biological processes may represent a balancing act between host environmental adaptation and sexual reproduction in this pathogenic fungus.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank Drs. Mira Edgerton and Yue Wang for their insightful comments on the manuscript. The work in the Huang lab was supported by Grants from the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (31370175, 31170086, and 81322026 to G.H.) and the “100 Talent Program” Grant from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (to G.H.).
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Communicated by M. Kupiec.
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Du, H., Huang, G. Environmental pH adaption and morphological transitions in Candida albicans . Curr Genet 62, 283–286 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00294-015-0540-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00294-015-0540-8