Calcofluor white staining and fluorescent microscopy

The C. albicans strains were grown to log phase in YPD medium at 30°C and then further incubated with 0.05% calcofluor white solution (Sigma) for 5 min, after which they were washed once and resuspended in PBS. To mount the cells, 10 μl of final resuspension was added to the glass slide and mixed with 10 μl of Vectashield Antifade Mounting Media (Vector Laboratories). To compare the degree of the calcofluor white fluorescent signal, the UV laser intensity and the exposure time were fixed at the same level for all observation. The images were photographed with 63X magnification under a Zeiss Apotome microscope.