Level of Education of Students Involved

Undergraduate

Faculty Sponsor

Patrice Bouyer

College

College of Arts & Sciences (CAS)

Discipline(s)

Cell Biology, microbiology

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Symposium Date

Spring 4-30-2026

Abstract

Candida albicans (C. albicans) is an opportunistic commensal fungus that can alter its behavior under low-shear stress modeled microgravity by exhibiting phenotypes associated with increased virulence. For instance, it has been previously reported that microgravity increased C. albicans resistance to amphotericin , but did not change its resistance to caspofungin. Here, we investigated how microgravity (5 and 6 days) influences the resistance of two C. albicans strains (SC5314 and NCCLS11) to fluconazole (25 µg) and caspofungin (5 µg). Drug susceptibility was assessed by measuring the zone of inhibition (ZOI) around the treatment discs after 24h of exposure under microgravity and gravity conditions. A clinostat was used to simulate a microgravity environment. Five days pre-exposure to microgravity on Mueller-Hinton agar significantly increased NCCLS11 sensitivity to 25 µg fluconazole 508.2±30.2 (n=28) mm2 versus 352.1±40.7 mm2 (n=26), P=0.003 (unpaired t.test), which reverted after 6 days 411.7±19 (n=24) mm2 versus 396.5±20.8 (n=23), P=0.59 (unpaired ti.test). No change in sensitivity was observed to 5 µg caspofungin with or without gravity. Similarly, using SC5314 strain and YEPD agar medium we found no change in fluconazole sensitivity. Our results suggest that drug sensitivity during microgravity varies depending on the agar medium and C. albicans strains.

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