@phdthesis{Boehm2020,
  author    = {B{\"o}hm, Lena},
  title     = {Dissecting Mechanisms of Host Colonization by C. albicans},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-19230},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-192303},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2020},
  abstract  = {The human body is laden with trillions of microorganisms that belong to all three domains of life. Some species of this microbiota subsist as harmless commensals in healthy adults, but under certain circumstances, they can cause mucosal disease or even systemic, life-threatening infections. While the bacterial members of our microbiota are heavily studied today, much less attention is afforded to eukaryotic species that colonize different mucocutaneous surfaces of the human body. This dissertation focuses on identifying regulatory circuits that enable a prominent member of these eukaryotes, C. albicans, to, on the one hand, live on a specific mammalian mucosal surface as a harmless commensal and, on the other hand, proliferate as a pathogen. Since the ultimate source of many fatal Candida infections is the gastrointestinal (GI) tract of the infected individual, this organism is particularly suited to distinguishing traits essential for the gut colonization of commensal fungi and their ability to cause disease. Sequence-specific DNA-binding proteins that regulate transcription are important to most biological processes; I thus used these proteins as starting points to gain insights into 1) how a specific transcription regulator promotes virulence in C. albicans; 2) which traits C. albicans requires to inhabit the GI tract of a specific, well-defined mouse model as a harmless commensal; and 3) how three previously undescribed transcriptional regulators contribute to the commensal colonization of the digestive tract of this mouse model. Altogether, this work advances the knowledge concerning the biology of commensal fungi in the mammalian gut and genetic determinants of fungal commensalism, as well as pathogenicity.},
  subject      = {Candida albicans},
  language  = {en}
}