Life Sciences Commons^™

The Role Of Morphology Transitions In Tissue-To-Blood Spread Of Infestation, Joshua M. Jones

Honors College

The fungal organism Candida albicans is a nearly ubiquitous commensal inhabitant of the human body. However, in susceptible individuals it can establish mucosal infections as well as life-threatening systemic infection. We are investigating a key contributor to C. albicans’ pathogenesis: its ability to switch among multiple growth forms in response to an array of environmental signals. We hypothesize that this ability to undergo morphological transitions mediates its ability to disseminate from localized infections to system-wide bloodstream infection. Using a transparent zebrafish embryo model of infection, we have directly assessed specific contributions of C. albicans’ morphologies in the process of tissue-to-bloodstream …