Emergence of Antifungal Resistant Subclades in the Global Predominant Phylogenetic Population of Candida albicans
Jie Gong, Xin-Fei Chen, Xin Fan, Juan Xu, Han Zhang, Ruoyu Li, Sharon C.‐A. Chen, Fanrong Kong, Shu Zhang, Ziyong Sun, Mei Kang, Kang Liao, Dawen Guo, Zhe Wan, Zhidong Hu, Yunzhuo Chu, Hongmei Zhao, Gui-Ling Zou, Chong Shen, Yuanyuan Geng, Weiwei Wu, He Wang, Fei Zhao, Xin Lü, Lihua He, Guiming Liu, Yingchun Xu, Jian-Zhong Zhang, Meng Xiao
Abstract
Invasive candidiasis is the most common human fungal disease among hospitalized patients, and Candida albicans is the predominant pathogen. Considering the large number of infected cases and the limited alternative therapies, the azole-resistance of C. albicans brings a huge clinical threat. Here, our study suggested that antifungal resistance in C. albicans could also be associated with phylogenetic lineages. Specifically, it was revealed that more than half of the azole-resistant C. albicans strains belonged to the same clade. Furthermore, two nested subclades of the clade exhibited extremely high azole-resistance. It is worth noting that the isolates of two subclades were from different cities that are distributed over a large geographic span in China. This indicates that the azole-resistant C. albicans subclades may develop into serious public health concerns.