Candida famata

Candida is a genus of yeasts and is the most common cause of fungal infections worldwide. Many species are harmless commensals or endosymbionts of hosts including humans; however, when mucosal barriers are disrupted or the immune system is compromised they can invade and cause disease, known as an opportunistic infection. Candida is located on most of mucosal surfaces and mainly the gastrointestinal tract, along with the skin. Candida albicans is the most commonly isolated species and can cause infections (candidiasis or thrush) in humans and other animals. In winemaking, some species of Candida can potentially spoil wines. Many species are found in gut flora, including C. albicans in mammalian hosts, whereas others live as endosymbionts in insect hosts. Systemic infections of the bloodstream and major organs (candidemia or invasive candidiasis), particularly in patients with an impaired immune system (immunocompromised), affect over 90,000 people a year in the US. The genome of several Candida species has been sequenced. Antibiotics promote yeast (fungal) infections, including gastrointestinal (GI) Candida overgrowth and penetration of the GI mucosa. While women are more susceptible to genital yeast infections, men can also be infected. Certain factors, such as prolonged antibiotic use, increase the risk for both men and women. People with diabetes or the immunocompromised, such as those infected with HIV, are more susceptible to yeast infections. Candida antarctica is a source of industrially important lipases, while Candida krusei is prominently used to ferment cacao during chocolate production. When grown in a laboratory, Candida appears as large, round, white or cream (albicans means 'whitish' in Latin) colonies, which emit a yeasty odor on agar plates at room temperature.C. albicans ferments glucose and maltose to acid and gas, sucrose to acid, and does not ferment lactose, which helps to distinguish it from other Candida species. Recent molecular phylogenetic studies show that the genus Candida, as currently defined, is extremely polyphyletic (encompassing distantly-related species that do not form a natural group). Before the advent of inexpensive molecular methods, yeasts that were isolated from infected patients were often called Candida without clear evidence of relationship to other Candida species. For example, Candida glabrata, Candida guilliermondii, and Candida lusitaniae are clearly misclassified and will be placed in other genera once phylogenetic reorganization is complete (for example, see Khunnamwong et al. 2015). Some species of Candida use a non-standard genetic code in the translation of their nuclear genes into the amino acid sequences of polypeptides. The difference in the genetic code between species possessing this alternative code is that the codon CUG (normally encoding the amino acid leucine) is translated by the yeast as a different amino acid, serine. The alternative translation of the CUG codon in these species is due to a novel nucleic acid sequence in the serine-tRNA (ser-tRNACAG), which has a guanosine located at position 33, 5' to the anticodon. In all other tRNAs, this position is normally occupied by a pyrimidine (often uridine). This genetic code change is the only such known alteration in cytoplasmic mRNA, in both the prokaryotes, and the eukaryotes, involving the reassignment of a sense codon. This novel genetic code may be a mechanism for more rapid adaptation to the organism's environment, as well as playing an important role in the evolution of the genus Candida by creating genetic barriers that encouraged speciation.