Microevolution of the pathogenic yeasts Candida albicans and Candida glabrata during antifungal therapy and host infection
Authors:Pedro Pais1,2,#, Mónica Galocha1,2,#, Romeu Viana1,2, Mafalda Cavalheiro1,2, Diana Pereira1,2, Miguel Cacho Teixeira1,2
doi: 10.15698/mic2019.03.670
Volume 6, pp. 142 to 159, published 08/02/2019.
1 Department of Bioengineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
2 iBB – Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Biological Sciences Research Group, Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisboa, Portugal.
# Contributed equally.
Keywords:
fungal pathogens, host-pathogen interaction, microevolution, virulence, biofilm formation, antifungal resistance.
Corresponding Author(s):
Conflict of interest statement:
The authors declare no competing interests.
Please cite this article as:
Pedro Pais, Mónica Galocha, Romeu Viana, Mafalda Cavalheiro, Diana Pereira, Miguel Cacho Teixeira (2019). Microevo-lution of the pathogenic yeasts Candida albicans and Candida glabrata during antifungal therapy and host infection. Microbial Cell 6(3): 142-159. doi: 10.15698/mic2019.03.670
© 2019 Pais et al. This is an open-access article released under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows the unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduc-tion in any medium, provided the original author and source are acknowledged.
Abstract:
Infections by the pathogenic yeasts Candida albicans and Candida glabrata are among the most common fungal diseases. The success of these species as human pathogens is contingent on their ability to resist antifungal therapy and thrive within the human host. C. glabrata is especially resilient to azole antifungal treatment, while C. albicans is best known for its wide array of virulence features. The core mechanisms that underlie antifungal resistance and virulence in these pathogens has been continuously addressed, but the investigation on how such mechanisms evolve according to each environment is scarcer. This review aims to explore current knowledge on microevolution experiments to several treatment and host-associated conditions in C. albicans and C. glabrata. The analysis of adaptation strategies that evolve over time will allow to better understand the mechanisms by which Candida species are able to achieve stable phenotypes in real-life scenarios, which are the ones that should constitute the most interesting drug targets.