Laboratory Diagnosis of Medically Important Dermatophytes: Traditional Methods and New Developments

Type and reference strains of members of the onygenalean family Arthrodermataceae have been sequenced for rDNA ITS and partial LSU, the ribosomal 60S protein, and fragments of β-tubulin and translation elongation factor 3. The resulting phylogenetic trees showed a large degree of correspondence, and topologies matched those of earlier published phylogenies demonstrating that the phylogenetic representation of dermatophytes and dermatophyte-like fungi has reached an acceptable level of stability....

Some fungi with pleomorphic life-cycles still bear two names despite more than 20 years of molecular phylogenetics that have shown how to merge the two systems of classification, the asexual "Deuteromycota" and the sexual "Eumycota". Mycologists have begun to flout nomenclatorial regulations and use just one name for one fungus. The International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) must change to accommodate current practice or become irrelevant. The fundamental difference in the size of fungi...

The performance of the Bruker Biotyper matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization–time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometer (MS) for the identification of dermatophytes from clinical cultures was compared to that of dermatophyte identification using 28S rRNA gene sequencing. The MALDI Biotyper library (MBL; version 3.0) was used alone and in combination with a supplemented library containing an additional 20 dermatophyte spectra (S-MBL). Acquired spectra were interpreted using both the manuf...

The lactophenol cotton blue (LPCB) wet mount preparation is the most widely used method of staining and observing fungi and is simple to prepare. The preparation has three components: phenol, which will kill any live organisms; lactic acid which preserves fungal structures, and cotton blue which stains the chitin in the fungal cell walls.

Fungal species have undergone and continue to undergo significant nomenclatural change, primarily due to the abandonment of dual species nomenclature in 2013 and the widespread application of molecular technologies in taxonomy allowing correction of past classification errors. These have effected numerous name changes concerning medically important species, but by far the group causing most concern are the Candida yeasts. Among common species, Candida krusei, Candida glabrata, Candida guilliermo...

Purpose of review Recent advances in the molecular diagnostics of dermatophytosis may improve speed, specificities and sensitivities. This review provides an update on the current available molecular techniques for the diagnosis of dermatophytosis. Recent findings Molecular diagnostics of dermatophytosis relate to the direct detection of dermatophyte DNA in clinical specimens. Important challenges have been associated with the DNA extraction procedures, which despite improvement still lack conse...

Introduction Dermatophytes are a group of molds characterized by the ability to produce keratinases, thereby carving out for themselves specific ecological niches. Their traditional division into three genera, Trichophyton , Microsporum , and Epidermophyton has been expanded to nine and the species in each genus were modified. Dermatophytes are among the most prevalent causes of human and animal mycoses. Their epidemiology is influenced by various factors. These factors may be evolutive such as ...

Dermatophytes are highly infectious fungi that cause superficial infections in keratinized tissues in humans and animals. This group of fungi is defined by their ability to digest keratin and encompasses a wide range of species. Classification of many of these species has recently changed due to genetic analysis, potentially affecting clinical diagnosis and disease management. In this review, we discuss dermatophyte classification including name changes for medically important species, current a...