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The widespread use of azoles has led to increasing azole resistance among Candida albicans strains. One mechanism of azole resistance involves point mutations in the ERG11 gene, which encodes the target enzyme (cytochrome P450 lanosterol 14α-demethylase). In the present study, we amplified and sequenced the ERG11 gene of 23 C. albicans clinical isolates. Seventeen mutations encoding distinct amino acid substitutions were found, of which seven (K143Q, Y205E, A255V, E260V, N435V, G472R, and D502E) were novel. We further verified the contribution of the amino acid substitutions to azole resistance using site-directed mutagenesis of the ERG11 gene to recreate these mutations for heterologous expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We observed that substitutions A114S, Y132H, Y132F, K143R, Y257H, and a new K143Q substitution contributed to significant increases (≧fourfold) in fluconazole and voriconazole resistance; changes in itraconazole resistance were not significant (≦twofold).
Xiang et al. (Wed,) studied this question.