Candida albicansgenetic background influences mean and heterogeneity of drug responses and genome stability during evolution to fluconazole

Abstract

The importance of within-species diversity in determining the evolutionary potential of a population to evolve drug resistance or tolerance is not well understood, including in eukaryotic pathogens. To examine the influence of genetic background, we evolved replicates of twenty different clinical isolates of Candida albicans, a human fungal pathogen, in fluconazole, the commonly used antifungal drug. The isolates hailed from the major C. albicans clades and had different initial levels of drug resistance and tolerance to the drug. The majority of replicates