Article of Significant Interest Selected from This Issue by the Editors

Yeast-to-Hypha-to-Yeast: the Influence of Farnesol and cAMP on Candida albicans Morphology

Candida albicans virulence involves transitions between growth in yeast and filamentous forms. In most environments, a Cyr1-generated cyclic AMP (cAMP) signal is clearly required for induction of hyphal growth by yeast, but the role of cAMP signaling in maintenance of hyphal growth is less well understood. Lindsay et al. (p. 1219–1225) show that farnesol, a C. albicans-secreted molecule that inhibits its own Cyr1 activity, causes hyphal cells to stop elongation and form lateral yeast cells. These data suggest that chemical and environmental factors that impact cAMP production can impact an established filamentous growth program in ways that could affect host-pathogen interactions.