Abstract

Dimorphism in the yeast Candida albicans provides an unusually simple model system for investigating the mechanisms which regulate cellular differentiation, or cell divergence. Under the regime of pH‐regulated dimorphism, it has been demonstrated that the programs of protein synthesis accompanying bud and hypha formation are strikingly similar. Instead of dramatic differences in the repertoire of gene products possessed by bud‐ and hypha‐forming cells, subtle temporal, spatial and quantitative differences in the same architectural events appear to be basic to the genesis of alternative phenotypes. This emerging story of phenotypic regulation does not exclude differential gene expression, but rather de‐emphasizes its role and underscores other mechanisms which are not generally considered.