Screening of Candida albicans GRACE library revealed a unique pattern of biofilm construction under repression of the essential gene ILS1

ILS1 mutated Candida albicans was unable to grow as yeast-phase cells but was capable of producing a tridimensional biofilm structure in spite of reduced metabolic activity. This biofilm still relied on the classical biofilm genes, while it differentially induced groups of genes involved in adhesion, protein synthesis, cell wall organization, and protein folding. Although the conditional mutant repressed genes annotated for morphology and homeostasis processes affecting morphology and metabolism, the dynamic cell growth enabled the construction of a complex biofilm community independent of ILS1. The wild-type (WT) planktonic cells were grown in YPD media at 30 degrees celcius. The wild-type (WT) and the ILS1 GRACE strain biofilms were grown in RPMI medium buffered with MOPS. We conduted RNAseq profiling for 2 replicates in each condition (WT planktonic, WT biofilm and WT ILS1 strains)