Iron Acquisition in the Pathobiology of Candida albicans

The host nutritional environment is a key determinant for survival of human pathogens including C. albicans. Iron is an essential micronutrient for the host as well as for C. albicans. However, iron sequestration in host proteins confers ‘nutritional immunity’. In this chapter, we have reviewed our current understanding of the different iron uptake systems, the associated genes, and their transcriptional regulation in C. albicans. Besides, iron acquisition is essential for C. albicans virulence and iron homeostasis is also interlinked with lipid homeostasis and multidrug resistance. We have also provided an atlas of all annotated C. albicans iron acquisition genes with the attendant gene expression, and phenotype data including virulence.