Identification of whole pathogenic cells by monoclonal antibodies generated against a specific peptide from an immunogenic cell wall protein

• A new strategy for the detection of C. albicans without pretreatment is presented.
• Monoclonal antibodies were generated against a unique peptide sequence from CaBgl2p.
• Resulting monoclonal antibodies bound to both the peptide and the Bgl2p protein.
• Detection of single whole C. albicans cells was possible using flow cytometry.
• The antibodies distinguished C. albicans from the related yeast Candida glabrata.

We selected the immunogenic cell wall ß-(1,3)-glucosyltransferase Bgl2p from Candida albicans as a target protein for the production of antibodies. We identified a unique peptide sequence in the protein and generated monoclonal anti- C. albicans Bgl2p antibodies, which bound in particular to whole C. albicans cells.