Microbial competition between Escherichia coli and Candida albicans reveals a soluble fungicidal factor

Authors:

Damien J. Cabral1, Swathi Penumutchu1, Colby Norris1,2, Jose Ruben Morones-Ramirez3,4 and Peter Belenky1
PDF Download PubMed Link
Affiliations:

1 Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Division of Biology and Medicine, Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912, USA.

2 Bryant University, Smithfield, RI, 02917 USA.

3 Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Pedro de Alba, S/N, San Nicolás de los Garza, Nuevo León, México.

4 Centro de Investigacion en Biotecnologia y Nanotecnologia, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Facultad de Ciencias Quimicas, Parque de Investigacion e Innovacion Tecnologica, Km. 10 autopista al Aeropuerto Internacional Mariano Escobedo, Apodaca, Nuevo Leon. 66629.

Keywords: 

microbial competition, Escherichia coli, Candida albicans, antifungal, magnesium

Related Article(s)? 

Corresponding Author(s):

Peter Belenky, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Brown University, 171 Meeting Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA, 401 863-5954; peter_ belenky@brown.edu Jose Ruben Morones-Ramirez, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Pedro de Alba, S/N, San Nicolás de los Garza, Nuevo León, México; jose.moronesrmr@uanl.edu.mx

Conflict of interest statement:

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

Please cite this article as:

Damien J. Cabral, Swathi Penumutchu, Colby Norris, Ruben Morones-Ramirez and Peter Belenky (2018). Microbial competition between Escherichia coli and Candida albicans reveals a soluble fungicidal factor. Microbial Cell 5(5): 249-255. doi: 10.15698/mic2018.05.631

© 2018 Cabral 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 reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are acknowledged.

Abstract:

Localized and systemic fungal infections caused by Candida albicans can lead to significant mortality and morbidity. However, severe C. albicans infections are relatively rare, occurring mostly in the very young, the very old, and immunocompromised individuals. The fact that these infections are rare is interesting because as much as 80 percent of the population is asymptomatically colonized with C. albicans. It is thought that members of the human microbiota and the immune system work in concert to reduce C. albicans overgrowth through competition and modification of the growth environment. Here, we report that Escherichia coli (strain MG1655) outcompetes and kills C. albicans (strain SC5314) in vitro. We find that E. coli produces a soluble factor that kills C. albicans in a magnesium-dependent fashion such that depletion of available magnesium is essential for toxicity.

doi: 10.15698/mic2018.05.631
Volume 5, pp. 249 to 255, published 07/03/2018.

Leave a comment