Transformation ofCandida albicans by electroporation

✍ Scribed by De Backer, Marianne D.; Maes, Dirk; Vandoninck, Sandy; Logghe, Marc; Contreras, Roland; Luyten, Walter H. M. L.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 146 KB
• Volume: 15
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0749-503X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0061(199911)15:15<1609::aid-yea485>3.0.co;2-y

✦ Synopsis

In contrast to a variety of other yeasts, Candida albicans has proved difficult to transform with high efficiency. Lithium acetate transformation is fast and simple but provides a very low efficiency of DNA transfer (50-100 transformants/ g DNA), while spheroplast transformation, although more efficient (300 transformants/ g integrative DNA and 10 3 -10 4 transformants/ g replicative DNA), is complicated and time-consuming. In this study we applied various yeast transformation techniques to C. albicans and selected an electroporation procedure for further optimization. Transformation efficiencies of up to 300 transformants/ g were obtained for an integrative plasmid and up to 4500 transformants/ g for a CARS-carrying plasmid. This reasonably high transformation efficiency, combined with the ease and speed of electroporation in comparison to alternative techniques, make it the preferred method for transformation of C. albicans.