The Candida albicans cell wall maintains the structural integrity of the organism in addition to providing a physical contact interface with the environment. The major components of the cell wall are fibrillar polysaccharides and proteins. The proteins of the cell wall are the focus of this review. Three classes of proteins are present in the candidal cell wall. One group of proteins attach to ...

The echinocandin antifungal drugs inhibit synthesis of the major fungal cell wall polysaccharide β(1,3)-glucan. Echinocandins have good efficacy against Candida albicans but reduced activity against other Candida species, in particular Candida parapsilosis and Candida guilliermondii. Treatment of Candida albicans with a sub-MIC level of caspofungin has been reported to cause a compensatory incr...

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae RHO1 gene encodes a low-molecular-weight GTPase. One of its recently identified functions is the regulation of beta-1,3-glucan synthase, which synthesizes the main component of the fungal cell wall (J. Drgonova et al., Science 272:277-279, 1996; T. Mazur and W. Baginsky, J. Biol. Chem. 271:14604-14609, 1996; and H. Qadota et al., Science 272:279-281, 1996). From the...

Production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is an important aspect of phagocyte-mediated host responses. Since phagocytes play a crucial role in the host response to Candida albicans, we examined the ability of Candida to modulate phagocyte ROS production. ROS production was measured in the murine macrophage cell line J774 and in primary phagocytes using luminol-enhanced chemiluminescence. J774...

The fungus, Candida albicans, and the bacterium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, are opportunistic human pathogens that have been coisolated from diverse body sites. Pseudomonas aeruginosa suppresses C. albicans proliferation in vitro and potentially in vivo but it is the C. albicans hyphae that are killed while yeast cells are not. We show that hyphal killing involves both contact-mediated and soluble...