| Summary: | <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Candida albicans</it> is a human fungal pathogen, able to cause both superficial and serious, systemic diseases and is able to switch from yeast cells to long, tube-like hyphae, depending on the prevailing environmental conditions. Both morphological forms of <it>C. albicans</it> are found in infected tissue, often in combination with <it>Staphylococcus aureus</it>. Although bacterial adhesion to the different morphologies of <it>C. albicans</it> has been amply studied, possible differences in staphylococcal adhesion forces along the length of <it>C. albicans</it> hyphae have never been determined. In this study, we aim to verify the hypothesis that the forces mediating <it>S. aureus</it> NCTC8325-4<sup>GFP</sup> adhesion to hyphae vary along the length of <it>C. albicans</it> SC5314 and MB1 hyphae, as compared with adhesion to yeast cells.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>C. albicans</it> hyphae were virtually divided into a “tip” (the growing and therefore youngest part of the hyphae), a “middle” and a so-called “head” region (the yeast cell from which germination started). Adhesion forces between <it>S. aureus</it> NCTC8325-4<sup>GFP</sup> and the different regions of <it>C. albicans</it> SC5314 hyphae were measured using atomic force microscopy. Strong adhesion forces were found at the tip and middle regions of <it>C. albicans</it> hyphae (−4.1 nN and −4.0 nN, respectively), while much smaller adhesion forces were measured at the head region (−0.3 nN). Adhesion forces exerted by the head region were comparable with the forces arising from budding yeast cells (−0.5 nN). A similar regional dependence of the staphylococcal adhesion forces was found for the clinical isolate involved in this study, <it>C. albicans</it> MB1.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This is the first time that differences in adhesion forces between <it>S. aureus</it> and different regions of <it>C. albicans</it> hyphae have been demonstrated on a quantitative basis, supporting the view that the head region is different from the remainder of the hyphae. Notably it can be concluded that the properties of the hyphal head region are similar to those of budding yeast cells. These novel findings provide new insights in the intricate interkingdom interaction between <it>C. albicans</it> and <it>S. aureus</it>.</p>
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