Adherence of cell surface mutants of Candida albicans to buccal epithelial cells and analyses of the cell surface proteins of the mutants.

Strains of Candida albicans, selected on the basis of their reduced agglutination with a polyclonal anti-Candida antiserum, were tested for their adherence to human buccal epithelial cells (BEC). Of four strains, one (A9V2) had reduced binding to BEC in vitro. Adherence of wild type (wt) yeast cells (A9), as measured by the percentage of BEC with adhering Candida cells, was 73.4% +/- 3.8% compared with 49.3% +/- 3.1% for A9V2 (P less than 0.01). From yeast cells of A9 and A9V2, whole-cell extracts and dithiothreitol-, Zymolyase-, or beta-mercaptoethanol-solubilized cell extracts were compared by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and Western blotting (immunoblotting). From dithiothreitol-solubilized cell extracts, proteins with molecular masses of 55 to 60, 80 to 84, 115, and 165 kDa were observed from wt (A9) cells but were highly reduced in amount or absent from A9V2 cells. Western blot profiles of Zymolyase-solubilized extracts from both A9 and A9V2 were similar in appearance, while 55-, 80- to 84-, 115-, and 165-kDa proteins were observed only in A9 cells extracted with beta-mercaptoethanol. Strain A9V4, also selected by reduced agglutination but which adhered as well as strain A9, lacked the 80- to 84-kDa and 115-kDa proteins but otherwise was similar to strain A9. These results indicate that the 55- to 60- and 165-kDa proteins may be related to an adhesin function in C. albicans. The differences observed in the protein profiles of the wt adhering strain and its derived nonadhering mutant are similar to those described for another matched pair of C. albicans strains.