Clonal evolution of Candida albicans, Candida glabrata and Candida dubliniensis at oral niche level in health and disease

Alexander J Moorhouse; Rosa Moreno-Lopez; Neil A R Gow; Karolin Hijazi

doi:10.1080/20002297.2021.1894047

Clonal evolution of Candida albicans, Candida glabrata and Candida dubliniensis at oral niche level in health and disease

J Oral Microbiol. 2021 Mar 15;13(1):1894047. doi: 10.1080/20002297.2021.1894047.

Authors

Alexander J Moorhouse^{1

2

3}, Rosa Moreno-Lopez⁴, Neil A R Gow^{1

5}, Karolin Hijazi^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Medical Sciences, School of Medicine Medical Sciences and Nutrition, University of Aberdeen, Foresterhill, Aberdeen, UK.
² School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
³ Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK.
⁴ Institute of Dentistry, School of Medicine Medical Sciences and Nutrition, University of Aberdeen, Foresterhill, Aberdeen, UK.
⁵ Medical Research Council Centre for Medical Mycology at The University of Exeter, University of Exeter, UK.

Abstract

Background: Candida species have long been recognised as aetiological agents of opportunistic infections of the oral mucosa, and more recently, as players of polymicrobial interactions driving caries, periodontitis and oral carcinogenesis. Methods: We studied the clonal structure of Candida spp. at oral niche resolution in patients (n = 20) with a range of oral health profiles over 22 months. Colonies from oral micro-environments were examined with multilocus sequencing typing. Results: Candida spp. identified were C. albicans, C. glabrata and C. dubliniensis. Increased propensity for micro-variations giving rise to multiple diploid strain types (DST), as a result of loss of heterozygosity, was observed among C. albicans clade 1 isolates compared to other clades. Micro-variations among isolates were also observed in C. dubliniensis contra to expectations of stable population structures for this species. Multiple sequence types were retrieved from patients without clinical evidence of oral candidosis, while single sequence types were isolated from oral candidosis patients. Conclusion: This is the first study to describe the clonal population structure, persistence and stability of Candida spp. at oral niche level. Future research investigating links between Candida spp. clonality and oral disease should recognise the propensity to micro-variations amongst oral niches in C. albicans and C. dubliniensis identified here.

Keywords: C. dubliniensis; C. glabrata; Candida albicans; MLST; Oral niche; clonal evolution; strain type.

Abstract

Grants and funding