mSphere of Influence: Start with an Interesting Biological Phenomenon

Teresa O'Meara works in the field of functional genomics of Candida albicans, with a focus on host-pathogen interactions. In this mSphere of Influence article, she reflects on how papers entitled "Systematic Screens of a Candida albicans Homozygous Deletion Library Decouple Morphogenetic Switching and Pathogenicity" by S. M. Noble, S. French, L. A. Kohn, V. Chen, and A. D. Johnson (Nat Genet 42:590–598, 2010, https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.605) and "Exploring Quantitative Yeast Phenomics with Single-Cell Analysis of DNA Damage Foci" by E. B. Styles et al. (Cell Syst 3:264–277.e10, 2016, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2016.08.008) impacted her research and thinking through pioneering functional genomic screens. These articles show the power of combining defined mutant libraries with screens for interesting phenotypes to understand new biology.