Molecular Cloning of Candida albicans Genes by Differential Display

mRNA fingerprinting based on RT-PCR (reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction) such as differential display (DD) and RAP (mRNA fingerprinting using arbitrarily primed PCR) are useful methods to identify differentially expressed genes. We adopted DD to identify the gene(s) involved in Candida albicans pathogenicity using highly (16240) and weakly (18084) virulent strains. More than 40 cDNA fragments were isolated. The deduced amino acid sequence of one fragment was highly homologous to Saccharomyces cerevisiae translation initiation factor (TIF). The TIF gene was isolated from the C. albicans genomic library. Its expression was nearly 2-fold higher in the 16240 strain as assessed by Northern blot analysis. At present, the link between TIF gene and virulence is not clearly understood. However, DD is a useful technique to isolate differentially expressed genes in C. albicans.