Reporter Gene Assays in Candida albicans

Reporter systems are used in Candida albicans in three major experimental areas. These include gene expression, promoter analysis, and protein expression/localization. Heterologous expression in C. albicans is either not effective or inefficient due to the alternative codon usage in Candida , particularly CTG. Consequently, several reporter genes have been constructed by optimizing codons for expression in Candida . The reporter systems include lacZ, luciferase, and GFP. Generally, PCR site directed mutagenesis has been used to construct the modified reporter. Reporter gene vectors are not commercially available for Candida , but they can normally be requested from the laboratories that developed the constructs.