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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, July 2001, p. 2982-2992, Vol. 67, No. 7
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.7.2982-2992.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Quorum Sensing in the Dimorphic Fungus Candida albicans Is Mediated by Farnesol

Jacob M. Hornby,1 Ellen C. Jensen,2 Amber D. Lisec,1 Joseph J. Tasto,2,dagger Brandon Jahnke,1,Dagger Richard Shoemaker,3 Patrick Dussault,3 and Kenneth W. Nickerson1,*

School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-06661; Biological Sciences, College of St. Benedict's and St. John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota 563212; and Department of Chemistry, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-03043

Received 31 October 2000/Accepted 26 February 2001

The inoculum size effect in the dimorphic fungus Candida albicans results from production of an extracellular quorum-sensing molecule (QSM). This molecule prevents mycelial development in both a growth morphology assay and a differentiation assay using three chemically distinct triggers for germ tube formation (GTF): L-proline, N-acetylglucosamine, and serum (either pig or fetal bovine). In all cases, the presence of QSM prevents the yeast-to-mycelium conversion, resulting in actively budding yeasts without influencing cellular growth rates. QSM exhibits general cross-reactivity within C. albicans in that supernatants from strain A72 are active on five other strains of C. albicans and vice versa. The QSM excreted by C. albicans is farnesol (C15H26O; molecular weight, 222.37). QSM is extracellular, and is produced continuously during growth and over a temperature range from 23 to 43°C, in amounts roughly proportional to the CFU/milliliter. Production is not dependent on the type of carbon source nor nitrogen source or on the chemical nature of the growth medium. Both commercial mixed isomer and (E,E)-farnesol exhibited QSM activity (the ability to prevent GTF) at a level sufficient to account for all the QSM activity present in C. albicans supernatants, i.e., 50% GTF at ca. 30 to 35 µM. Nerolidol was ca. two times less active than farnesol. Neither geraniol (C10), geranylgeraniol (C20), nor farnesyl pyrophosphate had any QSM activity.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588-0666. Phone: (402) 472-2253. Fax: (402) 472-8722. E-mail: knickerson1{at}unl.edu.

dagger Present address: Cell Biology Department, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.

Dagger Present address: University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebr.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, July 2001, p. 2982-2992, Vol. 67, No. 7
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.7.2982-2992.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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