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Journal of Bacteriology, May 2001, p. 2859-2865, Vol. 183, No. 9
Zentrum für Infektionsforschung,
Universität Würzburg, D-97070 Würzburg,
Germany,1 and Microbiology Research
Unit, Department of Oral Medicine and Oral Pathology, School of Dental
Science and Dublin Dental Hospital, Trinity College, University of
Dublin, Dublin 2, Republic of Ireland2
Received 20 December 2000/Accepted 12 February 2001
Candida dubliniensis is a recently described
opportunistic fungal pathogen that is closely related to Candida
albicans but differs from it with respect to epidemiology,
certain virulence characteristics, and the ability to develop
fluconazole resistance in vitro. A comparison of C. albicans and C. dubliniensis at the molecular level
should therefore provide clues about the mechanisms used by these two
species to adapt to their human host. In contrast to C. albicans, no auxotrophic C. dubliniensis strains are
available for genetic manipulations. Therefore, we constructed
homozygous ura3 mutants from a C. dubliniensis
wild-type isolate by targeted gene deletion. The two URA3
alleles were sequentially inactivated using the
MPAR-flipping strategy, which is based on the
selection of integrative transformants carrying a mycophenolic acid
resistance marker that is subsequently deleted again by site-specific,
FLP-mediated recombination. The URA3 gene from C. albicans (CaURA3) was then used as a selection marker
for targeted integration of a fusion between the C. dubliniensis MDR1 (CdMDR1) promoter and a C. albicans-adapted GFP reporter gene.
Uridine-prototrophic transformants were obtained with high frequency,
and all transformants of two independent ura3-negative parent strains had correctly integrated the reporter gene fusion into
the CdMDR1 locus, demonstrating that the CaURA3
gene can be used for efficient and specific targeting of recombinant
DNA into the C. dubliniensis genome. Transformants carrying
the reporter gene fusion did not exhibit detectable fluorescence during
growth in yeast extract-peptone-dextrose medium in vitro, suggesting that CdMDR1 is not significantly expressed under these
conditions. Fluconazole had no effect on MDR1 expression,
but the addition of the drug benomyl strongly activated the reporter
gene fusion in a dose-dependent fashion, demonstrating that the
CdMDR1 gene, which encodes an efflux pump mediating
resistance to toxic compounds, is induced by the presence of certain drugs.
0021-9193/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JB.183.9.2859-2865.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Isogenic Strain Construction and Gene Targeting in
Candida dubliniensis
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Zentrum
für Infektionsforschung, Universität Würzburg,
Röntgenring 11, D-97070 Würzburg, Germany. Phone: 49-931-31 21 52. Fax: 49-931-31 25 78. E-mail:
joachim.morschhaeuser{at}mail.uni-wuerzburg.de.
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