Characterization of cell wall proteins from yeast and mycelial cells of Candida albicans by labelling with biotin: comparison with other techniques.

Candida albicans ATCC 26555 blastoconidia and blastoconidia bearing germ tubes were metabolically labelled by incubating the cells with 14C-labelled protein hydrolysate and were subsequently tagged with biotin. Double-labelled (radioactive and biotinylated) cell wall proteins and glycoproteins were extracted from intact cells of both growth forms by treatment with 2-mercaptoethanol (beta ME) and with beta-glucanases (Zymolyase) after treatment with beta ME. The beta ME- and Zymolyase-extracts were separated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and western blotted (immunoblotted) to nitrocellulose paper. Polyacrylamide gels were stained with Coomassie blue and processed for fluorography. Western blot analysis was performed either with peroxidase conjugated-concanavalin A (ConA) or Extravidin. Blotted proteins were also reacted with polyclonal antibodies and monoclonal antibodies against mannoprotein components from mycelial cell walls of the ATCC 26555 strain. Labelling with biotin allowed identification of a complex array of cell wall protein and glycoprotein components within a very wide molecular mass range (from 650 to 13 kDa). These appeared to be genuine cell wall components. Biotinylated high-molecular-mass glycoproteins that were not stained with Coomassie blue or that appeared as poorly resolved polydisperse bands by indirect ConA-peroxidase staining of Western blots were detected as sharply defined bands following reaction with the Extravidin-peroxidase conjugate. Biotinylated molecules retained unaltered reactivities against ConA, polyclonal antibodies, and monoclonal antibodies.