Three Mating Type-Like Loci in Candida glabrata

Abstract

Candida glabrata , the second most prevalent Candida species colonizing humans, possesses three mating type-like ( MTL) loci ( MTL1 , MTL2 , and MTL3 ). These loci contain pairs of MTL genes with their respective coding regions on complementary Crick and Watson DNA strands. Each pair of genes is separated by a shared intergenic promoter region, the same configuration found at the mating type loci of Saccharomyces cerevisiae . Two of the MTL loci, MTL1 and MTL2 , contain either the MTL a1/ MTL a2 configuration or the MTL α1/ MTL α2 configuration in different strains. All but one of the 38 tested C. glabrata strains were either aaα or aαα. One test strain was ααα. Based on the mating type genotype, the MTL genes at the MTL1 or MTL2 loci, and the size of the Xba I fragment harboring MTL1 or MTL2 , four classes of C. glabrata strains (I, II, III, and IV) were distinguished. Northern analysis revealed that strains were either a-expressors or α-expressors and that expression always reflected the genotype of either the MTL1 or MTL2 locus, depending on the class. The expression pattern in each class, therefore, is similar to that observed in S. cerevisiae , which harbors two silent cassette loci, HMR and HML , and the expression locus MAT . High-frequency phenotypic switching between core phenotypes in an α-expressing, but not in an a-expressing, strain modulated the level of MTL expression, suggesting a possible relationship between core phenotypic switching and mating.