C. albicans cells exhibit specific proteomic profiles depending on the medium used to induce the filamentation process

Candida albicans is an opportunist pathogen responsible for a large spectrum of infections, from superficial mycosis to systemic diseases known as candidiasis. C. albicans can grow in various morphological forms, including unicellular budding yeasts, filamentous pseudophyphae and true hyphae, and the ability to switch from yeast to hyphal forms is a key survival mechanism in the adaptation of the pathogen to the microenvironments encountered within the host. The filamentation is regulated by multiple signalling pathways and can be induced, in vitro, in several growth media, often leading to contradictory results in the literature. In this study, we use quantitative proteomic analyses to compare the response of C. albicans yeast cells grown in the minimal medium YNB to four media widely used in the literature to induce the yeast to hyphae transition: YNB-Serum, YNB-N-Acetyl-glucosamine (YNB-NAG), Lee medium and the rich Spider medium. We show here that each growth medium induces a unique pattern of response in C. albicans cells, and that some conditions trigger an original and specific metabolic adaptive response. Moreover, comparison of the proteomic profiles indicates modifications of the thiol-dependent oxidative stress status of the cells, especially in YNB-Serum and Lee medium, and, to a lesser extent, in Spider medium, confirming the role of oxidative stress in the filamentation process. Overall, our data indicate that some hypha-inducing media routinely used in the literature are associated with significant changes in in proteomic signature and that should be more often taken account when exploring the filamentation process of the pathogen.