Fig. 1: The disruption of VAM6 results in defective filamentous growth in C. albicans.

C. albicans were cultured in RPMI1640 + 10% FBS or Spider medium at 37 °C for 4 h and stained with calcoflour white. a The hyphal morphology of C. albicans strains in liquid RPMI1640 + 10% FBS medium. Scale bars = 50 μm. b The hyphal length in the wild-type strain and vam6Δ/Δ mutant in RPMI1640 + 10% FBS or Spider medium. Box plots indicate median (middle line), 25th, 75th percentile (box), and minimum and maximum value as well as outliers (single points); n = 50 hyphae. c The number of clearly separated hyphae and their first and secondary branching in RPMI1640 + 10% FBS medium was counted. Data were presented as mean ± SD; n = 45 hyphae in SC5314, n = 27 hyphae in vam6Δ/Δ. d The dynamics of hyphal growth in C. albicans strains in liquid RPMI1640 + 10% FBS medium. The lengths of hyphal elongation were recorded for 120 min upon the initiation of hyphal induction. Images were collected for 50 time points, with one image every 2 min. Data were presented as mean ± SD; n = 6 hyphae. e The hyphal morphology of C. albicans strains on solid media. The representative images shown are from 3 biological repeats. Scale bars = 1000 μm. f C. albicans strains were assayed biofilm formation in RPMI1640 + 10% FBS at 37 °C for 24 h. The biofilms were fixed, stained with ConA Alexa Fluor 594, and clarified using the solvent exchange protocol into methyl salicylate. Axial and side-view projections of biofilms are shown. Scalebar indicates depth of the biofilms. g The viable strains in biofilms were quantified by XTT. Data were presented as mean ± SD; n = 3 samples. Comparison between the mutant and the wild-type strain was analyzed with mixed linear model calculated by SPSS (d), two-tailed unpaired t-test (b, c, g). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.