Biological and genomic analyses of a clinical isolate of Candida galli from China

The rare clinical fungal pathogen Candida galli is associated with onychomycosis. This fungus was first described from chicken breast and liver in 2004 and only was reported six times. In this study, we report the first isolate of C. galli from human face granuloma in the world. Interestingly, this isolate shows complex morphological diversity and switching among four phenotypes (fluffy, stick, tight, and pure yeast). Our C. galli isolate couldn't grow at mammal body temperature 37? and shows sap activity only with the help of other Candida species. Genomic data show that C. galli conserves partial pathogen gene families of Candida clade. All these data suggest C. galli could adapt extensive environment in the nature but not a successful pathogen of human.