Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, INRAE USC2019, Unité Biologie et Pathogénicité Fongiques, Paris, France.
Section of Immunology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 260, Zurich 8057, Switzerland; Institute of Experimental Immunology, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, Zürich 8057, Switzerland.
Microbes Infect. 2024 Jan-Feb;26(1-2):105230. doi: 10.1016/j.micinf.2023.105230. Epub 2023 Sep 20.
The Candida albicans population displays high genetic diversity illustrated by 18-well differentiated genetic clusters. Cluster 13, also known as Candida africana, is an outlying cluster and includes strains first described as atypical C. albicans isolates of vaginal origin, showing apparent tropism for the female genital tract. In our study, we combined in vitro, and in vivo models to explore the colonization and pathogenic potential of C. africana. We report that C. africana has similar fitness to C. albicans when it comes to colonization of the oral and vaginal mucosa, however it has decreased fitness in gastro-intestinal colonization and systemic infection. Interestingly, despite high population homogeneity, our in vitro data highlighted for the first time a variability in terms of growth rate, biofilm formation and filamentation properties between C. africana strains. Overall, our data lays the foundations for exploring specific features of C. africana that might contribute to its apparent niche restriction.
白色念珠菌群体表现出高度的遗传多样性，由 18 个分化良好的遗传群集来体现。群集 13，也称为非洲念珠菌，是一个外围群集，包含最初被描述为阴道来源的非典型白色念珠菌分离株的菌株，表现出对女性生殖道明显的倾向性。在我们的研究中，我们结合了体外和体内模型来探索非洲念珠菌的定植和致病潜力。我们报告称，当涉及到口腔和阴道黏膜的定植时，非洲念珠菌与白色念珠菌具有相似的适应性，但在胃肠道定植和全身感染方面适应性降低。有趣的是，尽管种群同质性很高，但我们的体外数据首次突出显示了非洲念珠菌菌株在生长速度、生物膜形成和丝状形成特性方面的可变性。总的来说，我们的数据为探索可能有助于其明显生态位限制的非洲念珠菌的特定特征奠定了基础。
