Pathogenic Microbiology Commons^™

The Role Of Phosphatidylserine And Phosphatidylethanolamine In Candida Albicans Virulence, Sarah Elizabeth Davis

Doctoral Dissertations

In hospitalized patients with neutropenia, Candida albicans is the fourth leading cause of systemic bloodstream infections, which have a mortality rate of approximately 30 %. The phosphatidylserine synthase enzyme of C. albicans, Cho1p, appears to be a good drug target as a mutant lacking this enzyme (the cho1Δ/Δ [null mutant]) is avirulent in animal models of Candida infections and this enzyme is not conserved in humans. We discovered that the loss of phosphatidylserine (PS) synthesis affects C. albicans' expression of the Als3p adhesin, a virulence protein, and loss of PS synthesis also compromises the cell wall, causing increased …