Cryptococcus neoformans can survive in the host for years without causing any symptoms of active disease. Upon favorable conditions yeast can reactivate and cause active cryptococcosis. C. neoformans can also persist during anti-fungal treatments and cause disease recurrence. The current understanding of persister, especially anti-fungal persister cells in C. neoformans is sparse. This project aims to generate and characterize persister cryptococci which survive through antifungal treatment. Transcriptomics and proteomics would help characterize the molecular mechanisms of persistence phenotype. In conclusion, our study will highlight some of the mechanisms which C. neoformans employs, to survive in unfavorable conditions.
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