Characterisation of genotypic and phenotypic differences between Candida dubliniensis and Candida albicans

Abstract

Summary -Candida dubliniensis is a recently described Candida species associated with oral candidosis in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)-infected and AIDS patients. The phylogenetic position of C. dubliniensis has previously been established on the basis of the sequence of rRNA genes In order to establish that C dubliniensis is a new yeast species and to confirm its relationship to other yeast species, particularly C albicans, using non-rRNA gene sequences the ACT1 gene was chosen for analysis The C. dubliniensis ACT1 gene (CdACT1) was cloned and sequenced from a genomic DNA λ library using PCR. Analysis of the sequence data revealed the presence of a 1131 bp ORF interrupted by a single 632 bp intron at the 5' extremity of the gene. Comparison of the CdACT1 sequence with the C. albicans homologue (CaACT1) revealed that although the exons are 97.9 % identical the introns are only 83.4 % identical.