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Molecular and Cellular Biology, February 2001, p. 1272-1284, Vol. 21, No. 4
Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and
Development1 and Department of
Microbiology,4 University of Minnesota, St.
Paul, Minnesota 55108; Department of Pediatrics, University of
Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 554552;
and Department of Cell and Molecular Biology,
Hans-Knöll-Institut für Naturstoff-Forschung e.V.,
D-07745 Jena, Germany3
Received 19 September 2000/Returned for modification 17 October
2000/Accepted 17 November 2000
The Candida albicans INT1 gene is important for hyphal
morphogenesis, adherence, and virulence (C. Gale, C. Bendel, M. McClellan, M. Hauser, J. M. Becker, J. Berman, and M. Hostetter,
Science 279:1355-1358, 1998). The ability to switch between yeast and hyphal morphologies is an important virulence factor in this fungal pathogen. When INT1 is expressed in Saccharomyces
cerevisiae, cells grow with a filamentous morphology that we
exploited to gain insights into how C. albicans regulates
hyphal growth. In S. cerevisiae, INT1-induced
filamentous growth was affected by a small subset of actin mutations
and a limited set of actin-interacting proteins including Sla2p, an
S. cerevisiae protein with similarity in its C terminus to
mouse talin. Interestingly, while SLA2 was required for
INT1-induced filamentous growth, it was not required for
polarized growth in response to several other conditions, suggesting
that Sla2p is not required for polarized growth per se. The
morphogenesis checkpoint, mediated by Swe1p, contributes to
INT1-induced filamentous growth; however, epistasis
analysis suggests that Sla2p and Swe1p contribute to
INT1-induced filamentous growth through independent
pathways. The C. albicans SLA2 homolog (CaSLA2)
complements S. cerevisiae sla2
0270-7306/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/MCB.21.4.1272-1284.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Candida albicans INT1-Induced
Filamentation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Depends on
Sla2p

mutants for growth at 37°C and INT1-induced filamentous growth. Furthermore, in
a C. albicans Casla2/Casla2 strain, hyphal growth did not
occur in response to either nutrient deprivation or to potent stimuli, such as mammalian serum. Thus, through analysis of
INT1-induced filamentous growth in S. cerevisiae, we have identified a C. albicans gene,
SLA2, that is required for hyphal growth in C. albicans.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of
Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development, University of Minnesota, 250 Biological Sciences Center, 1445 Gortner Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108. Phone: (612) 625-1971. Fax: (612) 625-5754. E-mail:
judith{at}cbs.umn.edu.
Present address: Cargill Dow LLC, Minnetonka, MN 55345.
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