Cited by 348Antifungal resistance and susceptibilityFungal and yeast genetics researchYeasts and Rust Fungi Studies

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 91 of the 91 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 58 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

The evolution of drug resistance in clinical isolates of Candida albicans.

Open access

Abstract

Candida albicans is both a member of the healthy human microbiome and a major pathogen in immunocompromised individuals. Infections are typically treated with azole inhibitors of ergosterol biosynthesis often leading to drug resistance. Studies in clinical isolates have implicated multiple mechanisms in resistance, but have focused on large-scale aberrations or candidate genes, and do not comprehensively chart the genetic basis of adaptation. Here, we leveraged next-generation sequencing to analyze 43 isolates from 11 oral candidiasis patients. We detected newly selected mutations, including single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), copy-number variations and loss-of-heterozygosity (LOH) events. LOH events were commonly associated with acquired resistance, and SNPs in 240 genes may be related to host adaptation. Conversely, most aneuploidies were transient and did not correlate with drug resistance. Our analysis also shows that isolates also varied in adherence, filamentation, and virulence. Our work reveals new molecular mechanisms underlying the evolution of drug resistance and host adaptation.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

Genome sequencing of 43 serial Candida albicans isolates from 11 oral candidiasis patients shows that loss-of-heterozygosity events, not aneuploidies, are commonly associated with acquired azole resistance. The study also identifies 240 recurrently mutated genes and evolved changes in adhesion, filamentation, and virulence.

Key findings

  • LOH events were detected in all series, were often persistent and recurrent, and coincided with increased fluconazole MIC; highly recurrent LOH occurred on chromosome 3 right arm (Patients 1, 9, 14, 16, 42, 59; p < 5 × 10−4) and chromosome 5 left arm (Patients 1, 14, 15, 43; p < 0.01), regions containing CDR1/CDR2/MRR1 and ERG11/TAC1.
  • Aneuploidies appeared in at least one isolate from 80% (8/10) of clonal patient series, most often chromosome 5 (6 of 8 patients with an aneuploid isolate), but were mostly transient and did not consistently correlate with MIC changes.
  • Persistent nonsynonymous SNPs outside LOH tracts occurred in 1470 genes; applying recurrence across three or more patient series identified 240 polymorphic genes, enriched for fungal-type cell wall (18 genes, p < 0.0012) and cell surface genes (24 genes, p < 0.00012). Polymorphisms in 166 of the 240 genes appeared with an increase in MIC.
  • Isolates varied in adherence, filamentation, and virulence; increased in vitro fitness generally correlated with virulence traits, but drug resistance often initially reduced fitness in the absence of drug while increasing fitness in its presence.

Methods

  • Illumina paired-end sequencing of 43 colony-purified serial clinical isolates from 11 HIV-infected patients with oropharyngeal candidiasis, plus reference strain SC5314; coverage was 53–283X (103X average). SNP calls were validated by Sequenom iPLEX: 1853/1973 calls concordant (93.9%).
  • Genetic analyses included GATK SNP calling, sliding-window LOH detection, copy-number/ploidy analysis with flow cytometry, maximum-parsimony phylogenetics in PAUP*, persistence/recurrence filtering, and NMF clustering of co-occurring mutations.
  • Phenotypic assays included fluconazole E-test MICs, in vitro competition fitness with and without fluconazole, C. elegans survival, filamentation on Spider agar, and adhesion; 23 recurrently mutated loci with available homozygous deletion mutants were profiled for MIC and fitness.

Limitations

  • Stated: because each clinical sample was purified from a single colony, the study cannot assess population structure at any single time point; formally distinguishing de novo mutation followed by selection from selection on pre-existing variation is not possible with the samples and data at hand; ordering of events cannot be definitively inferred from singly sampled isolates; substantial additional sampling per time point is required to fully interpret fitness patterns.
  • Stated: some endpoint-only changes were treated as persistent because several time courses had only two or three isolates.
  • Evident: the clonal analysis rests on 10 patient series and 43 isolates, with some series containing only two isolates; deletion-mutant testing covered only 23 loci and used loss-of-function mutants, whereas known fluconazole resistance mechanisms are often gain-of-function.

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Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.7554/elife.00662

Cites

91 of 91 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

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Verification

Claims the paper makes

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Show all 70 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 51
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 18
62 of 62
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Fluconazole is fungistatic, such that many cells exposed to the drug arrest their growth but do not die.

    “First, fluconazole, the antifungal drug used to treat the patients in our series, is fungistatic, such that many cells exposed to the drug arrest their growth but do not die.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    C. albicans is a highly heterozygous diploid whereas C. glabrata is haploid.

    “Second, C. albicans is a highly heterozygous diploid whereas C. glabrata is haploid.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The culture medium used for in vitro fitness assays approximates in vivo conditions.

    “5 of the 22 deletion mutants reduced in vitro fitness in a culture medium thought to approximate in vivo conditions (Figure 8, ‘Materials and methods’).”
3 of 3

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

  • Fitness-assay reference strain changes from 4639 to 3795

    Major

    The Methods first identify a derivative of isolate 4639 as the reference for competitions with and without fluconazole, then identify a derivative of isolate 3795 for those same assays. Figure 7B also names 4639 as its reference.

  • Recurrence threshold is stated as both more than three and at least three patients

    Minor

    The Figure 5 caption requires mutations in more than three patients, whereas the Results and Methods define the filter as three or more patient series.

  • Phylogenetic tree method is described two different ways

    Minor

    The Results say a neighbor-joining algorithm constructed the tree, while the figure caption and Methods say maximum parsimony was used.

  • Patient 14 isolates described as collected on the same day have different dates

    Minor

    The text says isolates 2440 and 2501 were collected on the same day, but Table 1 dates them January 3 and January 4, 1996, respectively.

  • Count of genes with persistent nonsynonymous SNPs differs by one

    Minor

    The Results report 1470 genes with persistent nonsynonymous coding SNPs outside LOH tracts, but the Methods use 1471 as the number of ORFs with such SNPs in a model explicitly described as excluding LOH regions.

5 of 5

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Metadata

Authors
Ford, C. B., Funt, J. M., Abbey, D., Issi, L., Guiducci, C., Martinez, D. A., Delorey, T., Li, B. Y., White, T. C., Cuomo, C., Rao, R. P., Berman, J., Thompson, D. A., & Regev, A.
Affiliations
  • Broad Institute (US)
  • University of Minnesota (US)
  • Worcester Polytechnic Institute (US)
  • University of Missouri–Kansas City (US)
Corresponding author
  • Thompson, Dawn A
  • Regev, Aviv
Venue
eLife
Published
2015-02-03
Volume
4
Pages
e00662-e00662
ISSN
2050-084X (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2089758228
Cited by
348
References
91
Citations by year
2026: 15 · 2025: 32 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 35 · 2020: 30 · 2019: 39 · 2018: 39 · 2017: 38 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 12
FWCI
26.99
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • eLife (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Digital WPI (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation (Graduate Student Fellowship)
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute (Full investigator)
  • Helen Hay Whitney Foundation (Postdoctoral Fellowship)
  • National Institutes of Health (8DP1CA174427, 2R01CA119176-01)
  • Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › Antifungal resistance and susceptibility
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Fungal and yeast genetics research
  • Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Microbiology › Yeasts and Rust Fungi Studies
Keywords
Candida albicans, drug resistance, azole resistance, ergosterol biosynthesis, oral candidiasis, loss of heterozygosity, copy number variation, single nucleotide polymorphisms, aneuploidy, host adaptation, fungal virulence, filamentation, cell adhesion, clinical isolates
MeSH terms
Adhesiveness, Aneuploidy, Candida albicans, Candidiasis, Humans, Microbial Sensitivity Tests, Mutation, Phenotype, Virulence, Fluconazole, Genome, Human, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Evolution, Molecular, Loss of Heterozygosity, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide, Drug Resistance, Fungal, Host-Pathogen Interactions, Genetic Fitness

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