Cell Morphology Variations and Budding Patterns in Candida Isolates

Genitourinary Candida spp isolates (n = 595) represented by C. glabrata, C. tropicalis, C. guilliermondii, C. albicans, C. pseudotropicalis, C. parapsilosis and C. stellatoidea were microscopically examined to determine their cell shapes, budding types and morphological responses to different pH values. Four cell shapes (spherical, oval, oval/spherical and elongated) were observed, with the oval/spherical type having the highest occurrence of 48.7% while elongated cells were 9.0% of the total isolates. The cell shapes were variously distributed among the different Candida species. Three distinct budding types observed were terminal, subterminal and bipolar/multipolar/random, with the bipolar/multipolar/random budding type having the highest occurrence (70.8%), while the subterminal had the lowest (1.8%). The three budding types were present in all cell shapes except spherical which exhibited only terminal budding. There was no relationship between species and cell shape or between species and budding type, but the pattern of budding seemed to be dependent on cell shape (p<0.05).