Dissociation in Candida Albicans

Abstract

C. (Monilia) albicans presents the following 2 types of hereditary variations or directions of variation (1) The membranous variant, characterized by the membranous consistency and wrinkling of cultures which acquire filamentous structure. In glucose broth a membranous veil and a clotted cottony deposit result. It produces non-lethal lesions of the kidneys of rabbits when inoculated intraven. Between the normal form and the extreme membranous variant, the same strain may produce intermediate variants. In true, non-pathogenic yeasts, similar facts have been observed. (2) The lethal variant ("R" form), discovered in 1935 by Negroni; Krassilnikov in 1934 and Nadson in 1935 descr. similar variants ("lethal races") in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The lethal races of C. albicans grow slowly, lack exptl. virulence, and produce filaments with difficulty. The lethal variants were obtained not only by the method employed by Negroni and Loizaga, cultivation in a liquid medium with methyl-green, but also by starvation of the cultures. The same strain may give rise to several degrees of variation. A strain that has varied in the membranous direction may afterwards evolve in the lethal direction, and vice versa. Therefore, the number of combinations of characteristics that C. albicans can present is infinite. Both membranous and lethal variants have the biochemical characteristics of the normal form.