NMR comparison of hyphal and yeast Candida albicans serotype B mannans

A change from a globular to a filamentous hyphal form is an important feature in the pathogenicity of yeasts. Such a dimorphism while infecting a host organism is thought to be also accompanied in the case of Candida albicans spp. by a structural rearrangement of surface mannan antigen. The presented work brings new insights into the molecular structural changes of mannan C. albicans serotype B based on NMR experimental data. 1H and 13C signal identification of the anomeric region and the assignment of their linkage type is presented here. 2D deconvolution of the HSQC spectra facilitated accurate integration of all anomeric cross-peaks. Analysis of the differences in the integrals led to the proposal that C. albicans serotype B hyphal mannan side chains have the shortened structural moieties: Manα1-2Manα1- and Manα1-3 [Manα1-6] Manα1-2Manα1-. These represent the dominant structures important for construction of a saccharide-based prospective anti-candida vaccine.