Quantitative expression of Candida albicans aspartyl proteinase genes SAP7, SAP8, SAP9, SAP10 in human serum in vitro.

The different members of the secreted aspartyl proteinase (Sap) family of the human pathogenic yeast Candida albicans are proposed to play different roles during infection and are differentially expressed at various body sites. In recent reports, expression analysis has focused on the genes SAP1-6, while the expression pattern of SAP7-10 was less well studied. We analyzed the SAP7-SAP10 expression profile of C. albicans under human serum influence that may be elucidated in the course of blood infection in humans and how this in vitro expression profile is associated with hyphal formation. The phenotypes of strains were examined under scanning electron microscopy. Quantitative RT-PCR (2-(deltadeltaC)T) was used to monitor SAP expression of C. albicans wild type cells and mutants lacking SAP9 and/or SAP10. Of the four analyzed SAP genes, only SAP7 was detectably induced in the double mutant and in the wild type strains in the model that mimics bloodstream infections. On the other hand, in the wild types (isolate 83 and CAF2-1), SAP7 was expressed 0.8- or 0.4-fold less than SAP10, respectively. Our findings suggest that Sap7 may respond to the challenge of the human blood environment. Furthermore, the results support the notion that compensatory upregulation of SAP7 and SAP8 in the deltasap9/deltasap10 mutant occurs in these conditions. SAP7-10 expression was strain-specific. Our findings point to a link between morphogenesis and expression of SAP9 in serum, where these conditions induce both hyphae and SAP9, but temporal gene expression patterns might be controlled by other factors.