-Mediated Transformation of .

The use of broad-spectrum antimycotic therapy, immunosuppressive therapy, and indwelling medical devices has contributed to the increased frequency of mucosal and systemic infections caused by . A major concern for and other spp. infections is the increase in drug resistance. To address these issues, additional molecular tools for the study of are needed. In this investigation, we developed an transformation system for . A number of parameters were investigated to determine their effect on transformation frequency, and then an optimized protocol was developed. The optimal conditions for the transformation of were found to be an infection incubation temperature of 26 °C, 0.2 mM acetosyringone in both induction media and co-culture media, 0.7% agar concentration, and a multiplicity of infection of 50:1 to . Importantly, the frequency of multiple integrations was low (5%), demonstrating that generally integrates at single sites in , which is consistent with other fungal transformation systems. The development of this system in adds another tool for the molecular manipulation of this increasingly important fungal pathogen.