ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF YEAST MONOMORPHIC MUTANTS OF CANDIDA-ALBICANS

A method was devised for the isolation of yeast monomorphic (LEV) muta nts of Candida albicans. By this procedure, about 20 stable yeast-like mutants were isolated after mutagenesis with ethyl methane sulfonate. The growth rate of the mutants in different carbon sources, both ferm entable and not, was indistinguishable from that of the parental strai n, but they were unable to grow as mycelial forms after application of any of the common effective inducers, i.e., heat shock, pH alteration s, proline addition, or use of GlcNAc as the carbon source. Studies pe rformed with one selected strain demonstrated that it had severe alter ations in the chemical composition of the cell wall, mainly in the lev els of chitin and glucans, and in specific mannoproteins, some of them recognizable by specific polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies. It is suggested that these structural alterations hinder the construction of a normal hyphal wall.