C. albicans Mutants of Masking Genes Have More Exposed β-Glucan

<div><p>Wild-type or mutant C. albicans strains were grown overnight in YPD, then stained with anti-β-glucan antibody and Cy3-labeled (A–C) or PE-labeled (D–F) secondary antibody.</p><p>(A–C) Upper photomicrographs show overlay of brightfield and anti-β-glucan staining of Cy3-labeled cells; lower photomicrographs show anti-β-glucan staining alone.</p><p>(D–F) Overlay histograms of FACS analysis of PE-labeled cells; data on 20,000 cells are shown. MFI values for wild-type and mutants are shown in insets. In parallel experiments, strains that were complemented with a wild-type copy of the gene showed full reversal of β-glucan exposure (for <i>KRE5</i>) or partial reduction in exposure (for <i>PHR2</i>) (<a href="http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.0020035#ppat-0020035-sg005" target="_blank">Figure S5</a>). This correlates with other phenotypes observed for these complemented strains [<a href="http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.0020035#ppat-0020035-b017" target="_blank">17</a>,<a href="http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.0020035#ppat-0020035-b020" target="_blank">20</a>,<a href="http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.0020035#ppat-0020035-b035" target="_blank">35</a>].</p>