Candida albicans and Candida tropicalis antigens studied by SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and Western blot.

Summary: The SDS extracts of blastospores from 14 Candida albicans strains and from 8 Candida tropicalis strains were studied by SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The Coomassie blue staining revealed more than 40 polypeptides; 4 from Candida albicans and 5 from Candida tropicalis were major polypeptides with molecular weights (M.W.) of 34 to 54 kDa. The extracts obtained by the mechanical disruption of yeasts cells and those obtained by the SDS whole‐cell treatment showed several differences especially with polypeptides ranging from 67 to 94 kDa and from 20 to 30 kDa – the major polypeptides were extracted by the both procedures. All the gels run with the SDS extracts from the strains of same species strains gave identical patterns but several polypeptides including the major ones showed different M.W. when extracted from Candida albicans or Candida tropicalis. However the antigens of these two species previously studied by quantitative Immunoelectrophoresis techniques (QIE) had shown more than 85% of cross‐reactions. (Gabriel‐Bruneau and Guinet 1984 [5]).