action (Fromtling, 1988; Odds, 1988). First, the shoulder seen in time-kill experiments with clotrimazole, whether done with growing or resting cells, is characteristic of a situation where cells possess not one, but multiple copies of the primary target, eg mitochondria or molecules of a particular enzyme (Brooks et al., 1991). In this regard, similar delays or shoulders were also apparent in the much earlier studies reported by Iwata et al.(1973). Secondly, since release of cellular K+ has been widely accepted and used as a valid and measurable parameter of cell membrane damage, it seems very likely that the modest clotrimazole-induced K+ release seen in this study reflects little direct physicochemical damage to the yeast cell membrane. Although possible, it is much less likely that the cells do suffer lethal direct cell membrane damage by clotrimazole that is not reflected in K+ release.

Acknowledgements. This work was supported by the US Department of Veterans Affairs.