The effect of farnesol on amino acid incorporation by a wild-type and cell-wall variant strain of Candida albicans.

Farnesol, a quorum sensing (QS) signal, is produced by Candida albicans during high density growth and has been found to inhibit morphogenesis. This QS auto-inducing signal was discovered to increase amino acid incorporation by C. albicans when concentrations of farnesol increased to 10 microg/mL in yeast nitrogen broth. Farnesol concentrations greater than 10 microg/mL abolished the enhanced incorporation, and the magnitude of the increased incorporation was dependent on cell-surface hydrophobicity.