Inefficient delivery of yeast cells as an explanation for reduced plating efficiency of Candida albicans

The plating efficiency for fungal yeast cells is usually less than that expected from microscopic counts, and a number of explanations for this phenomenon have been proposed. The present study was undertaken to explore possible reasons for reduced plating efficiency of Candida albicans. Explanations that we evaluated and found unlikely included: ineffectiveness of different culture media and/or incubation temperatures for growing colonies, insufficient area of the plate available for expression of individual colonies, production of microcolonies, and inaccurate counting of the organisms in the inoculum. An assay for delivery of the inoculum into tissue culture plate wells indicated that reduced delivery of the organisms accounted for lower than expected plating efficiency. C albicans yeast cells grown under low glucose conditions and expected to have reduced adhesiveness were found to have higher values for both delivery and plating efficiency in our assays. In summary, our results indicate that reduced plating efficiency for C albicans under the conditions used for these experiments is best explained by the loss of some yeast cells during preparation of the inocula or delivery of the yeast cells onto the plates.