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PeerJ 2019Morels ( spp.) are iconic edible mushrooms with a long history of human consumption. Some microbial taxa are hypothesized to be important in triggering the formation of...
Morels ( spp.) are iconic edible mushrooms with a long history of human consumption. Some microbial taxa are hypothesized to be important in triggering the formation of morel primordia and development of fruiting bodies, thus, there is interest in the microbial ecology of these fungi. To identify and compare fungal and prokaryotic communities in soils where is cultivated in outdoor greenhouses, ITS and 16S rDNA high throughput amplicon sequencing and microbiome analyses were performed. , , , and were found to comprise the core microbiome of ascocarps. These bacterial taxa were also abundant in the soil beneath growing fruiting bodies. A total of 29 bacterial taxa were found to be statistically associated to fruiting bodies. Bacterial community network analysis revealed high modularity with some 16S rDNA operational taxonomic unit clusters living in specialized fungal niches (e.g., pileus, stipe). Other fungi dominating the soil mycobiome beneath morels included , , and . This research informs understanding of microbial indicators and potential facilitators of ecology and fruiting body production.
PubMed: 31579614
DOI: 10.7717/peerj.7744 -
Frontiers in Cellular and Infection... 2023Chromoblastomycosis (CBM) is a form of chronic mycosis that affects the skin and mucous membranes and is caused by species of dematiaceous fungi including Exophiala...
INTRODUCTION
Chromoblastomycosis (CBM) is a form of chronic mycosis that affects the skin and mucous membranes and is caused by species of dematiaceous fungi including Exophiala spp., Phialophora spp., and Fonsecaea spp. The persistence of this disease and limitations associated with single-drug treatment have complicated efforts to adequately manage this condition.
METHODS
In this study, a microdilution assay was used to explore the synergistic antifungal activity of everolimus (EVL) in combination with itraconazole (ITC), voriconazole (VRC), posaconazole (POS), and amphotericin B (AMB) against a range of clinical dematiaceous fungal isolates.
RESULTS
These analyses revealed that the EVL+POS and EVL+ITC exhibited superior in vitro synergistic efficacy, respectively inhibiting the growth of 64% (14/22) and 59% (13/22) of tested strains. In contrast, the growth of just 9% (2/22) of tested strains was inhibited by a combination of EVL+AMB, and no synergistic efficacy was observed for the combination of EVL+VRC.
DISCUSSION
Overall, these findings indicate that EVL holds promise as a novel drug that can be synergistically combined with extant antifungal drugs to improve their efficacy, thereby aiding in the treatment of CBM.
Topics: Humans; Antifungal Agents; Everolimus; Amphotericin B; Mycoses; Voriconazole; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Fungi
PubMed: 36909734
DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2023.1131416 -
Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy Jun 2018Our studies showed that a combination of amphotericin B and terbinafine had synergistic effects against the majority of melanized fungi associated with...
Our studies showed that a combination of amphotericin B and terbinafine had synergistic effects against the majority of melanized fungi associated with chromoblastomycosis (CBM) and similar infections, including those with , , , , , , , and This drug combination could provide an option for the treatment of severe or unresponsive cases of CBM, particularly in cases due to species of and .
Topics: Amphotericin B; Antifungal Agents; Ascomycota; Chromoblastomycosis; Exophiala; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Phialophora; Terbinafine
PubMed: 29581111
DOI: 10.1128/AAC.00270-18 -
Journal of Ophthalmic Inflammation and... Dec 2016Pleurostomophora richardsiae (formerly Phialophora richardsiae) is a dematiaceous fungus that is an uncommon cause of ocular infection. Herein, we present a case of...
BACKGROUND
Pleurostomophora richardsiae (formerly Phialophora richardsiae) is a dematiaceous fungus that is an uncommon cause of ocular infection. Herein, we present a case of endogenous endophthalmitis associated with disseminated P. richardsiae infection.
FINDINGS
This is a descriptive case report with a brief review of literature. A 43-year-old male admitted to the hospital following an acute cerebellar hemorrhage was found to have a swollen and tender wrist. The patient was afebrile with leukocytosis. Visual acuity was hand motion in the right eye and 20/20 in the left. Right eye examination noted anterior chamber cells and flare, vitreous haze and multiple large, and fluffy retinal infiltrates. Diagnostic vitrectomy revealed a mixed inflammatory cell infiltrate with numerous fungal elements. Blood cultures were negative, multiple transesophageal echocardiography studies revealed no vegetations, and synovial fluid aspiration of the wrist and biopsy of the radius were unremarkable. The patient was treated with intravitreal cefazolin, vancomycin, and amphotericin B, topical ciprofloxacin and natamycin, and intravenous amphotericin B and voriconazole. Visual acuity in the right eye declined to light perception, and examination revealed increasing anterior and posterior chamber inflammation. The patient died several weeks after presentation due to a massive intracranial hemorrhage. Fungal culture results from the vitrectomy were received post mortem and were positive for P. richardsiae.
CONCLUSIONS
P. richardsiae endophthalmitis is rare, and outcomes are typically poor. Infections typically occur following traumatic skin inoculation; however, a long refractory period may occur before symptoms develop. Early diagnosis and combination antimicrobial therapy are essential to optimize visual outcomes.
PubMed: 27822745
DOI: 10.1186/s12348-016-0111-2 -
Cureus Aug 2022Cutaneous chromoblastomycosis is a chronic subcutaneous fungal disease of the skin caused by , especially by , ,and species affecting the skin, lungs, intestines,...
Cutaneous chromoblastomycosis is a chronic subcutaneous fungal disease of the skin caused by , especially by , ,and species affecting the skin, lungs, intestines, stomach, and central nervous system. It is treated using itraconazole in mild cases and amphotericin B in severe cases. A six-year-old female child presented to the Dermatology Outpatient Department with pigmented brown to blackish tanned plaques and verrucous lesions on the face and extremities. These lesions were present for the past two and a half years and were slowly enlarging and involving other areas like the trunk. The lesions were proven on biopsy to be cutaneous blastomycosis. The patient was put on infusions of amphotericin B in a calculated pediatric dose. Her blood pressure and renal function tests were checked daily to avoid any electrolyte derangements, nephrotoxicity, and systemic infusion reactions caused by amphotericin B. Amphotericin B reduced the size of the cutaneous lesions, and treatment response was assessed on regular follow-ups. Chromoblastomycosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis to enable timely treatment and to prevent its lethal complications such as epidermoid carcinoma. Treatment should continue for two to three months until histopathology is negative to ensure complete eradication.
PubMed: 36158439
DOI: 10.7759/cureus.28286 -
Indian Journal of Plastic Surgery :... 2016Phaeohyphomycosis is a chronic infectious condition caused by dematiaceous fungi which usually involve the skin and subcutaneous tissue. Subcutaneous phaeohyphomycosis...
Phaeohyphomycosis is a chronic infectious condition caused by dematiaceous fungi which usually involve the skin and subcutaneous tissue. Subcutaneous phaeohyphomycosis is characterised by papulonodules, verrucous, hyperkeratotic or ulcerated plaques, cysts, abscesses, pyogranuloma, non-healing ulcers or sinuses. In India, commonly associated genera are , , , , and . This condition involves the presence of brown-walled hyphal structures in the dermis and epidermis. Here, we are reporting a rare case series of three patients of phaeohyphomycosis with lesions on finger and dorsum of the hand.
PubMed: 27833296
DOI: 10.4103/0970-0358.191321 -
Medical Mycology Case Reports Mar 2019Chromoblastomycosis is a chronic cutaneous and subcutaneous mycosis, is caused by dematiaceous fungi, the most frequently implicated are and We report a woman who was...
Chromoblastomycosis is a chronic cutaneous and subcutaneous mycosis, is caused by dematiaceous fungi, the most frequently implicated are and We report a woman who was treated before with mycological cure, but she experience a relapse requiring treatment again. Direct microscopic examination and skin biopsy with culture were necessary to identify a Exophiala psychrophila, and for our knowledge this is the first case reported.
PubMed: 30533349
DOI: 10.1016/j.mmcr.2018.10.001 -
Frontiers in Microbiology 2021is a dematiaceous fungus that causes mainly chromoblastomycosis, but also disseminated infections such as phaeohyphomycosis and mycetoma. These diseases are extremely...
is a dematiaceous fungus that causes mainly chromoblastomycosis, but also disseminated infections such as phaeohyphomycosis and mycetoma. These diseases are extremely hard to treat and often refractory to current antifungal therapies. In this work, we have evaluated the effect of 1,10-phenanthroline-5,6-dione (phendione) and its metal-based complexes, [Ag (phendione)]ClO and [Cu(phendione)](ClO).4HO, against , focusing on (i) conidial viability when combined with amphotericin B (AmB); (ii) biofilm formation and disarticulation events; (iii) interaction with human macrophages; and (iv) infection of larvae. The combination of AmB with each of the test compounds promoted the additive inhibition of growth, as judged by the checkerboard assay. During the biofilm formation process over polystyrene surface, sub-minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of phendione and its silver(I) and copper(II) complexes were able to reduce biomass and extracellular matrix production. Moreover, a mature biofilm treated with high concentrations of the test compounds diminished biofilm viability in a concentration-dependent manner. Pre-treatment of conidial cells with the test compounds did not alter the percentage of infected THP-1 macrophages; however, [Ag(phendione)]ClO caused a significant reduction in the number of intracellular fungal cells compared to the untreated system. In addition, the killing process was significantly enhanced by post-treatment of infected macrophages with the test compounds. induced a typically cell density-dependent effect on larvae death after 7 days of infection. Interestingly, exposure to the silver(I) complex protected the larvae from infection. Collectively, the results corroborate the promising therapeutic potential of phendione-based drugs against fungal infections, including those caused by .
PubMed: 34025603
DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.641258 -
Nature Jul 2018The mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU) is a highly selective calcium channel and a major route of calcium entry into mitochondria. How the channel catalyses ion...
The mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU) is a highly selective calcium channel and a major route of calcium entry into mitochondria. How the channel catalyses ion permeation and achieves ion selectivity are not well understood, partly because MCU is thought to have a distinct architecture in comparison to other cellular channels. Here we report cryo-electron microscopy reconstructions of MCU channels from zebrafish and Cyphellophora europaea at 8.5 Å and 3.2 Å resolutions, respectively. In contrast to a previous report of pentameric stoichiometry for MCU, both channels are tetramers. The atomic model of C. europaea MCU shows that a conserved WDXXEP signature sequence forms the selectivity filter, in which calcium ions are arranged in single file. Coiled-coil legs connect the pore to N-terminal domains in the mitochondrial matrix. In C. europaea MCU, the N-terminal domains assemble as a dimer of dimers; in zebrafish MCU, they form an asymmetric crescent. The structures define principles that underlie ion permeation and calcium selectivity in this unusual channel.
Topics: Animals; Caenorhabditis elegans; Calcium; Calcium Channels; Cryoelectron Microscopy; Ion Channel Gating; Models, Molecular; Phialophora; Protein Multimerization; Protein Subunits; Zebrafish
PubMed: 29995857
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0331-8 -
Plant Disease Oct 2020Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important commodities, and Brazil is the second-largest maize exporter country in the world. In April 2019, the period of the...
Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important commodities, and Brazil is the second-largest maize exporter country in the world. In April 2019, the period of the second crop maize (safrinha), it was observed black decayed lesions on roots and wilting of some maize plants, causing a "sudden death" in a commercial area in the west of Paraná state, Brazil (Figure 1A-C). Symptomatic root and stalk were collected, and tissues surface disinfected with 70% ethanol for 30 s, 1.5% NaOCl for 1 min and rinsed three times in sterile distilled water, slices of necrotic tissues were transferred to potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium and grown for 7 days at 27 ± 1ºC with a photoperiod of 12 h. Pure cultures were obtained through monosporic isolation. The fungal morphology is alike Gaeumannomyces radicicola, which is a synonym of Phialophora radicicola var. radicicola, Harpophora radicicola, P. zeicola, H. zeicola and G. graminis var. maydis (Hernández-Restrepo et al. 2016). Colonies on PDA showed flat, white to light gray at first (Fig. 1D), turning gray to black with age (Fig. 1E). Colony diameter approximately 5.2 cm on PDA in the dark after 7 days at 27ºC. Conidiophores with slightly thickened wall, mostly branched, varying in dimensions, with a range of 57.5-166.5 (avg. 128.7 μm) × 2.9-5.9 (avg. 4.2 μm) n = 25 (Fig. 1H-J). The conidia showed lunate-shaped with rounded ends, produced successively at the apex of phialide, 3.3-9.7 (avg. 6.6 μm) × 1.5-3.6 μm (avg. 2.5 μm), n = 100 (Fig. 1G-J). Morphological characteristics were comparable to the description of this specie (Cain 1952; Gams 2000; McKeen 1952). The total genomic DNA of a representative isolate, LEMIDPRZm 19-01 was extracted and the partial large subunit (28S nrDNA; LSU), internal transcribed spacer nrDNA including the intervening 5.8S nrDNA (ITS), and part of the largest subunit of the RNA polymerase II gene (RPB1) were amplified and sequenced, as following by Hernández-Restrepo et al. (2016) and Klaubauf et al. (2014). The primers to LSU - NL1 (O'Donnel, 1993) and LR5 (Vilgalys; Hester, 1990); ITS - ITS5 and ITS4 (White et al., 1990); and RPB1 - RPB1F and RPB1R (Klaubauf et al., 2014) were used in this study. The gene sequences of LSU (MT123866), ITS (MT114427), and RPB1 (MT123867) were deposited in GenBank and showed 99.67%, 99.75%, and 100% identity with type material G. radicicola CBS 296.53 (KM484962, KM484845, and KM485061). A multi-locus phylogenetic analysis based on Bayesian Inference showed the isolate LEMIDPRZm 19-01 in the G. radicicola clade (Fig. 2). To confirm pathogenicity, ex vivo assays were performed with mycelial PDA discs of 5 mm from a 7-day-old culture using detached roots (adapted method by Degani et al., 2019), on wounded and unwounded stalk and leaves, each treatment consisted of five replications. PDA discs without fungal were used in negative tissue controls. Pathogenicity tests were also conducted in vivo, two experiments performed: i) the stalk tissue was inoculated by sterilized toothpick grown on PDA with fungal mycelium and the leaves inoculated as ex vivo assay, and toothpick without fungal mycelium was used to stalk negative control, whereas PDA discs without fungal were used in the tested leaves; ii) 6 mycelial PDA discs/500 mL were placed on potato dextrose broth (PDB) media and it remained in agitation for 10 days to obtain a mycelial suspension. Subsequently, the mycelial was crushed to soil infestation, and 50 mL from this suspension were dropped in each 2 L maize pot with soil sterilization 10 days after emergence. Maize pots with soil sterilization without mycelium fungal were used as negative controls. Four replications (maize pots), for each treatment, were used in both tests. Experiments were repeated twice. In the ex vivo assay, all inoculated tissues with and without wounds showed necrotic lesions (Fig. 1K-N). In the first in vivo assay, stalk rot symptoms, including wilting of the inoculated plants causing premature plant death, were observed within 6 days (Fig. 1O-Q). In the second in vivo assay, inoculated plants had inferior growth than compared with plant control. Sixty days after inoculation, the plants were removed from the pots and it was observed a roots degeneration with symptoms of necrosis (Fig. 1R-U). No symptoms were detected in the control treatments and the pathogen was re-isolated from symptomatic tissues confirming Koch's postulate for all assays. So far, to our knowledge, the pathogen distribution was reported solely in the west area of Paraná state, but it may become a potential threat to Brazilian maize production. Further monitoring is necessary to better understand the epidemiology of this pathogen to address a strategy for disease control. The pathogen has already been detected in Canada, South Africa, and China. To our knowledge, this is the first report of G. radicicola in Brazil, as well as in South America.
PubMed: 33026305
DOI: 10.1094/PDIS-03-20-0556-PDN