Trehalose and glycogen levels during the initial stages of growth of Candida albicans.

Yeast phase cells of Candida albicans were extracted with cold 0.5 M trichloroacetic acid. The only quantitatively significant anthrone-positive material in these extracts was trehalose which was identified chromatographically and enzymatically. Glycogen in the residue was digested with amyloglucosidase to free glucose which was assayed by a glucose oxidase method. Washed cells from a stationary phase culture of C. albicans rapidly decreased their trehalose content during the early phases of growth on a fresh glucose-containing medium. Concurrent increases in total glycogen concentration were of a greater magnitude than could be accounted for by trehalose mobilization. Thus a specific role for trehalose during initial growth is indicated and is compared with other fungal systems. Trehalase activity was measured in situ and showed only minor changes during the time intervals of these experiments in contrast to other reports on S. cerevisiae. A large fraction of the enzyme in C. albicans behaved as external to the protoplasmic membrane. On one type of growth medium C. albicans exhibited (in addition to trehalose) variable amounts of a sugar alcohol in trichloroacetic acid extracts. This has tentatively been identified as arabitol.