Production of Contiguously Arranged Chlamydospores in Candida albicans

SUMMARY: Contiguous arrangements of two to three chlamydospores occurred in a clinical isolate of Candida albicans. Time-lapse photography showed that the terminal cell of a cell chain was first transformed into a chlamydospore and such transformation proceeded centripetally to the next cell in the chain. Ultrathin sections revealed that the outermost layer of the three-layered chlamydospore wall was continuous throughout the interconnected spores, with the other layers surrounding each spore separately. Chlamydospore chains were common in this organism.