Genotype and phenotype of oral Candida albicans from patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus

Abstract

Candida albicans has been shown to vary in its phenotypic expression with the progression of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Isolates of C. albicans were obtained from 45 patients with HIV infection during the progression of their disease and differentiated using two methods. The first utilized the morphological characteristics of colonies, and the second method utilized a small portion of C albicans DNA as a probe on Southern-transferred, EcoRI-digested C. albicans genomic DNA. In 67% of the patients a single strain of C albicans, as determined by the DNA analysis, was isolated from each individual. The phenotypic expression of the genetically identical strains varied consider..