Iron deprivation induces EFG1-mediated hyphal development in Candida albicans without affecting biofilm formation

In this study, we investigated the role of cellular iron status in hyphae and biofilm formation in Candida albicans. Iron deprivation by a chelator, bathophenanthrolene disulfonic acid, promoted hyphal development even in nonhyphal-inducing media without affecting growth of C. albicans cells. Iron-acquisition defective mutants, Deltaftr1 and Deltaccc2, also showed hyphal formation, which was prevented by iron supplementation. Notably, most of the tested morphological mutants Deltacph1, Deltaefh1 and Deltatpk1 continued to form hyphae under iron-deprived conditions, except the Deltaefg1 null mutant, which showed a complete block in hyphae formation. The role of EFG1 in filamentation under iron-deprived conditions was further confirmed by Northern analysis, which showed a considerable upregulation of the EFG1 transcript. Of notable importance, all the morphological mutants including Deltaefg1 mutant possessed enhanced membrane fluidity under iron-deprived conditions; however, this did not appear to contribute to hyphal development. Interestingly, iron deprivation did not affect the ability of C. albicans to form biofilms on the catheter surface and led to no gross defects in azole resistance phenotype of these biofilms of C. albicans cells. Our study, for the first time, establishes a link between cellular iron, Efg1p and hyphal development of C. albicans cells that is independent of biofilm formation.