Integration of Metabolism with Virulence in Candida albicans

The genome of the model pathogenic fungus Candida albicans was sequenced about a decade ago, facilitating unbiased genome-wide explorations of its pathobiology. These studies, in combination with the molecular and biochemical dissection of specific pathways and networks, have revealed that metabolic adaptation is intimately linked with the virulence of C. albicans. This fungus tunes its metabolic activity to specific host niches, and its virulence depends on the functionality of certain metabolic pathways. Also, its pathogenicity and antifungal drug susceptibility are modulated by growth on nutrients found in such niches. Specific regulators appear to coordinate the expression of metabolic functions with virulence factors such as yeast-hypha morphogenesis, thereby promoting host colonisation. It has become clear that the regulatory networks controlling certain metabolic pathways in C. albicans have undergone transcriptional rewiring in comparison with Saccharomyces cerevisiae, reflecting the evolutionary tuning of C. albicans to mammalian host niches.