Gene disruption to evaluate the role of fungal candidate virulence genes

Gene disruption is a powerful genetic tool that can define pathogenic or virulence factors. In the past two years gene disruption approaches have been used to identify fungal virulence genes. The capsule genes, an alpha subunit of G protein and certain kinases of Cryptococcus neoformans have clearly been demonstrated to be associated with pathogenicity. In Candida albicans at least four genes involved in hyphal formation have been disrupted and tested for virulence. In other fungi, such as Histoplasma capsulatum, however, more efficient gene disruption methods need to be developed before such approaches can be regularly used for identifying virulence genes.