A new purple fluorescent color marker for genetic studies in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida albicans

The ability to visualize cellular events by linking them to color or fluorescence changes has been an invaluable tool for biology. We describe a novel plasmid-borne color marker whose expression in yeast leads to purple-colored cells that are also brightly fluorescent. This dominant marker provides a useful tool for rapidly screening plasmid maintenance using a visual or fluorescence assay in both Saccharomyces carevisiae and Candida albicans.