Gene

Cell biology

Biology

Corpus albicans

Fungal protein

Hypha

Genetics

Model organism

Candida albicans

Budding yeast

Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Microbiology

Transcription factor

Multicellular organism

Organism

Morphogenesis

Virulence

Yeast

Phenotype

FEMS Yeast Research

Candida albicans is a multimorphic commensal organism and opportunistic fungal pathogen in humans. A morphological switch between unicellular budding yeast and multicellular filamentous hyphal growth forms plays a vital role in the virulence of C. albicans, and this transition is regulated in response to a range of environmental cues that are encountered in distinct host niches. Many unique transcription factors contribute to the transcriptional regulatory network that integrates these distinct environmental cues and determines which phenotypic state will be expressed. These hyphal morphogenesis regulators have been extensively investigated, and represent an increasingly important focus of study, due to their central role in controlling a key C. albicans virulence attribute. This review provides a succinct summary of the transcriptional regulatory factors and environmental signals that control hyphal morphogenesis in C. albicans.

Transcriptional control of hyphal morphogenesis in Candida albicans