Fig. 2: The virulent properties of gut-evolved C. albicans are retained to some extent upon GlcNAc adaptation.
a Schematic overview of the evolution protocol based on the gut colonization of mice by C. albicans cells coupled with serial transplants from colonized to naïve hosts. Cells recovered from each evolution line were harvested after 4 weekly serial passages for the following experiments. The commensal fitness of gut-evolved wild-type (b) and ngs1 mutant strain (c) in mice treated with different sugars (color coded) was determined as in Fig. 1b. Cells recovered from the three independent evolution line are indicated with different symbols. Left: control vs GlcNAc; right: glucose vs GlcNAc. Significance was measured with the one-tailed paired Student’s t test. n = 3 mice housed separately for each competitive fitness experiment. d GlcNAc signal outweighs the selection by the host to protect C. albicans from losing its virulence program. 18–21 g ICR mice were inoculated with 2.5 × 105 of wild-type cells harvested after 4 weekly serial passages by tail vein injection. Significance was measured with log-rank test. n = 6 mice. e The survival curve of mice injected with ngs1 mutant cells harvested from mice treated with different sugars after 4 weekly serial passages. Significance was measured with log-rank test. n = 6 mice. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
