Hube B, Stehr F, Bossenz M, Mazur A, Kretschmar M, Schäfer W (2000): Secreted lipases in Candida albicans: cloning and characterisation of a new group of putative virulence genes
Arch. Microbiol. 174: 362-374.

Extracellular lipolytic activity enabled the human pathogen Candida albicans to grow on lipids as the sole source of carbon. A new lipase gene family (LIP1 - LIP10) was cloned and characterised. The open reading frames (orfs) of the lipase genes are between 1281 bp and 1416 bp long and encode highly homologous proteins with up to 80% identical amino acid sequences. Each deduced lipase sequence has conserved lipase motifs, four conserved cysteine residues, conserved putative N-glycosylation sites and similar hydrophobicity profiles. All LIP genes, except LIP7, encode an N-terminal signal sequence. Four lipase genes were expressed in all media and samples tested as shown by Northern blot- and RT-PCR analysis. Six LIP genes were expressed in medium with Tween 40 as a sole source of carbon. However, the same genes were also expressed in media without lipids. In addition, two more genes, LIP2 and LIP9, were only expressed in media which did not contain any lipids. Transcripts of most lipase genes were detected during the yeast to hyphal transition. Furthermore, five LIP genes were found to be expressed during experimental infection of mice. These data indicate lipid-independent, highly flexible in vitro and in vivo expression of a large number of LIP genes, possibly reflecting broad lipolytic activity, which may contribute to the persistence and virulence of C. albicans in human tissue.