Three-dimensional behaviour of mitochondria during cell division and germ tube formation in the dimorphic yeast Candida albicans

Abstract

This study was done to correlate mitochondrial behaviour with nuclear behaviour and cell division as well as with the germ tube formation in the dimorphic yeast Candida albicans. Three-dimensional reconstruction of electron micrographs of serially sectioned cells of the three strains was used to determined the morphological and quantitative relationships between the structures. The results suggested that at the time of entry into the bud a few mitochondria fused into a single giant one, which fragmented during mitosis and resumed a single giant form before cytokinesis, and was then partitioned into two parts. This tendency was also shown during germ tube formation. Quantitative analysis has established that growth of organelles such as the nucleus and mitochondria closely followed total cell growth, the ratio of organelle volume to total cell volume being held relatively constant.