COMPARATIVE STUDY ON HYDROLYTIC ENZYMES PRODUCED BY DIFFERENT MORPHOLOGICAL FORMS OF CANDIDA ALBICANS

In recent years, the incidence of fungal infections has been rising all over the world. The ability of Candida albicans to switch from yeast to hyphal growth is essential for its virulence. The aim of this comparative study was to biotype and characterize phospholipase, proteinase, phosphatase and haemolytic activities of yeast and hyphal forms of Candida albicans . The hyphal form of Candida albicans secrets high quantity of hydrolytic enzymes than yeast form, which helps in its virulence. These results suggest that pathogenic fungi produce larger amount of inducible hydrolytic enzymes than non-pathogenic fungi. In this investigation, plate methods were used to determine the phospholipase, proteinase and haemolytic activities and spectrophotometric method was employed for testing acid phosphatase activity. Keywords: Candida albicans , Candidiasis, Hydrolytic enzymes, Haemolytic activity, Virulence.