Introduction

The haploid pathogenic yeast Candida glabrata ranks second only to C. albicans as a cause of bloodstream fungal infection and candidal vaginitis. One of the most notable attributes of this species is its decreased susceptibility to the azole antifungal agent fluconazole.

The C. glabrata MLST scheme was developed by Andrew Dodgson in the laboratories of David Denning (University of Manchester, UK) and David Soll (University of Iowa, USA) for the unambiguous characterization of isolates, and to enable easy inter-laboratory comparisons to be made. It was first piloted in a study of 109 geographically diverse isolates.

The allelic profiles of these strains and others can be found in the database.

REF:
Dodgson AR, Pujol C, Denning DW, Soll DR, Fox AJ. Multilocus sequence typing of Candida glabrata reveals geographically enriched clades. J Clin Microbiol. 2003 Dec;41(12):5709-17.

The technique has proved useful for studying the population structure of the species and its worldwide distribution. It is intended that the technique be used to address questions about geographical differences seen in both the incidence of infection and the antifungal susceptibilities of isolates. To this end, researchers are encouraged to submit their data to the curator in order that that the database may be enlarged and of greater utility to the research community as a whole.