Human Plasma-like Medium (HPLM) Induces Cell Morphologies

The fungal pathogen ) forms yeast cells of different sizes and morphological characteristics during infection. These features are usually not seen in standard laboratory conditions. Here, we describe cell morphologies when is grown in human plasma-like medium at 37°C, 5% CO. We observed mixed-size populations of cells less than 1 µm up to 16.8 µm in cell diameter, increased capsule size, high chitin, and DNA content in larger cells. Our findings show that serum is not required for human plasma-like medium (HPLM)-induced cellular heterogeneity. Thus, this new method offers an opportunity to investigate factors of that mediate pathogenesis or host-pathogen interactions in a physiologically relevant setting.IMPORTANCEWe provide a description of new culture condition using the human plasma-like medium that supports the formation of the full range of cell morphologies of .