Virulence of <i>C. parapsilosis</i>.

<p>The degree of melanization in response to fungal infection was monitored by visual inspection of the <i>G. mellonella</i> larvae in control (<b>A</b>), WT strain (<b>B</b>), KO strain (<b>C</b>) and the reintegrant (RE) <i>C. parapsilosis</i> strain (<b>D</b>). Survival of <i>G. mellonella</i> larvae infected with 2.5×10⁶ yeast cells from each strain in PBS was monitored over time (<b>E</b>). The ability of <i>C. parapsilosis</i> to invade tissues was evaluated in a mouse model after intraperitoneal infection of Swiss mice (<b>F</b>). After 3 days of infection, the wild type (WT), heterozygous (HET), homozygous (KO) and reintegrant (RE) yeast strains were recovered from the kidneys and the CFUs/mg tissue were calculated. Ten mice were used per group and the experiment was repeated twice with similar results. Student t-test: *P<0.05; **P<0.01 between WT and HET, KO or RE strains.