In the human body and allow for the discovery of the effects that may be masked by the artificially high D-glucose concentrations used in vitro. Also a major disadvantage of our study and multiple others is the use of only one strain. There are major differences between clinical and reference strains with respect to metabolic activity, susceptibility profiles and the ability to form biofilms which suggests this analysis would benefit by confirmation with clinical isolates. It is important to note that ACH levels were not standardised to cell count or biomass but per biofilm unit. This was in order to avoid potential artifacts that would arise through biofilm killing by antifungal agents. The mode of action for HICA is still unknown, and broader transcriptional and proteomic studies are warranted to elucidate the specific factors underlying its anti-microbial activity. Considering the similar expression of ACH catabolism genes after cysteine and HICA exposure, cysteine may provide clues in the quest to understand the mode of action of HICA. A few Lactobacillus-fungus co-culture studies with a transcriptomic approach have already shed light on this inhibitory mechanism and they indicate a global metabolic shutdown in fungal cells in response to Lactobacillus metabolites. Considering the urgent need for effective treatment strategies against fungal infections, HICA could provide an alternative and effective approach in the fight against superficial Candida biofilm infections in concentrations relevant to topical treatment or lock therapies. Together with its broadly antibacterial activity it could also be a good choice for mixed bacterial-fungal infections. The decreased mutagenic potential observed in biofilms exposed to HICA would suggest that long-term therapy would not cause harmful exposure of adjacent mucosa and surrounding bacteria to mutagenic ACH although more studies are required to confirm this. Recent studies in other insect vectors such as sandflies and mosquitoes have provided insights in the temporal gene expression profiles associated with blood and sucrose meals and have illuminated dramatic changes within metabolic, digestive, immune, and reproduction signaling pathways across feeding states. The amount of sequence information pertaining to midges has been limited in comparison to these model organisms. Prior to the study here, there exists only a few Culicoides reports on tissuespecific transcript expression in response to feeding and oral orbivirus challenge, which is an ultimate compromise in non-model genetic systems. Thus, the molecular functioning of this important vector only has been minimally explored. The rapid evolution of next generation sequencing has influenced a fundamental shift in genomic science where RNA sequencing technology can provide a comprehensive picture of multiple steady-state transcriptomes and digital measure of gene expression in a single experiment.