Gene expression in human fungal pathogen Coccidioides immitis changes as mycelia differentiate into spherules and mature. Coccidioides immitis RS

Coccidioides immitis (C. immitis) is a dimorphic fungus that causes disease in mammals including human beings. It grows as a mycelium in the soil but differentiates into a pathogenic structure called a spherule in the host. We compared the transcriptome of C. immitis mycelia and day 2 and day 8 spherules grown in vitro using a custom custom oligonucleotide microarray from Nimblegen. Overall design: C. immitis RS strain isolated from infected mice was grown on agar. Arthroconidia was harvested and inoculated into mycelial spores. RNA was extracted from spores at different days post-inoculation and hybridized to a custom Nimblegen array, in order to identify differentially expressed genes between mycelia and spherules.