Laser capture microdissection of Candida albicans from host tissue

Laser microdissection is a technique in which specific populations of cells are acquired from sections of complex tissue under direct microscopic visualization. The technique can be used to selectively harvest or ablate host and/or fungal cells from a variety of biological specimens, including human, animal, or plant tissue sections. When coupled with downstream applications such as proteomic and molecular analyses, laser microdissection can address a variety of important biological questions specifically related to the in vivo host-fungus interaction. In this chapter, we describe how laser microdissection enables researchers to selectively isolate Candida albicans cells from host-infected tissue. Detailed protocols are provided for tissue handling and processing, slide preparation, and laser capture microdissection (LCM). Using these methods, we highlight the use of LCM to examine infection-related C. albicans gene expression.