C. glabratayeast cells were grown overnight in 5 ml YPD medium at 30 ̊C. An aliquot from the overnight culture was inoculated in 10 ml fresh YPD medium to an initial OD of 0.1. Cells were incubated at 30 ̊C till the cultureOD600was between 0.4 and 0.6. Cells were harvested in a sterile 50 ml centrifuge tube and washed twice with sterile Milli-Q(MQ)water. Washed cells were suspended in 100 μl of 100 mM LiOAc, mixed thoroughly and transferred to a sterile 1.5 ml microcentrifuge tube. A transformation mix containing 240 μlpolyethylene glycol(PEG) (50% (w/v)), 36 μl LiOAc(1 M), 25μl ultrapure single-stranded salmon sperm DNA (2 mg/ml) (Clonetech) was added to 50 μl cell suspension. 50 μltransforming DNA (1μg circular plasmid DNA) was added to the above suspension. Whole mixture was vortexed gently and incubated at 30 ̊C for 45 min. 43 μl DMSO was added to the tubeand incubated at 42 ̊C for 15 min. Cells were collected after centrifugation at 5,000 rpm for 1 min and suspended in minimal medium containing 0.6% Bacto-Casamino acid. Transformation mixture was plated on CAA plates and transformants were selected for uracil prototrophy

To collectmacrophage-internalized yeast cellsfor RNA and protein extraction, 107THP-1 monocytes were seeded in 100 mm cell culture dishes and treated with PMA. PMA-differentiated THP-1 macrophages were infected with appropriateC. glabratastrainsto a MOIof 1:1. Equal numberof C. glabratacells wasinoculated inRPMI medium as control. Two hourspost infection,non-phagocytosed yeast cells were removed by washing THP-1 macrophages thrice with PBS. At different time points, culture dishes were washed twice with chilled PBS and 2 mlchilled sterile water was added toeach dish to lyse the macrophages. Corresponding cultures grown in RPMI medium were transferred to50 ml polypropylene tubesand transferred on ice. Lysates were collected by scrapping the macrophage monolayer and transferred to50 ml polypropylene tubes.RPMI-grown and macrophage-internalized C. glabratacells were harvested by centrifugation at 2,500g for 8 min. Macrophage cell debris were removed frommacrophage-internalized cells by repeated washing with chilled sterile water. Harvested C. glabratacells were stored at -20ºC till further use

nvolved use of GFP based vector system, the expression of the transgene was visualized under fluorescent microscope with excitation filter of 485+20 nm

Transient transfection of plasmid DNA in cellswas performed usingLipofectamine 2000transfection reagentaccording to manufacturer’s protocol. Briefly, 0.5 to 1million cellswere seeded in a 35mm tissue culture dish one day prior totransfection. For each 35mm dish, 4μg DNA was mixed in 250μl of Opti-MEMin one polypropylene tube. In another tube 10μl of Lipofectamine 2000 was diluted in250μl Opti-MEM and incubated at room temperature for 5 minutes. DNA and Lipofectamine 2000 were mixed together and allowed to form complexes for 30minutes at room temperature. Meanwhile, the adherent cells were washed twicewithPBS and 1ml of Opti-MEM was added. 500μl of complexes were then added to each dishcontaining cells and medium. After 6-8 hrs, the medium containing complexes wasremoved and complete medium was added and transgene expression was evaluated 24-48 hrs after transfection. Since most of the experiments