The production of thiaminase by a bacterium of the intestinal tract as an etiologic factor of beriberi has received considerable study by Japanese work ers. Chang (1) observed that when a thiamine solution was placed in the sigmoidal colon of a patient having habitual constipation combined with beri beri, the vitamin soon disappeared. The first discovery of a thiaminase producing micro-organism...

The need for a rapid and accurate method for the detection of fungal pathogens has become imperative as the incidence of fungal infections has increased dramatically. Herein, we tested the Luminex 100, a novel flow cytometer, for the detection of the medically important genus Trichosporon. This genus was selected as our proof-of-concept model due to the close phylogenetic relationship between t...

Biofilms are a principal form of microbial growth and are critical to development of clinical infection. They are responsible for a broad spectrum of microbial infections in the human host. Many medically important fungi produce biofilms, including Candida [1], Aspergillus [2], Cryptococcus [3], Trichosporon [4], Coccidioides [5], and Pneumocystis [6]. In this review we emphasize common feature...

Phylogenetic relationships among heterobasidiomycetous yeasts, including anamorphic and teleomorphic taxa, have been compared from the sequence similarity of small (18S) and large (25S) subunit ribosomal RNA. Species examined were Cystofilobasidium capitatum, Filobasidiella neoformans, Fi/obasidium floriforme, Leucosporidium scottii, Malassezia furfur, M. pachydermatis, Phaffia rhodozyma, Rhodo...

The repertoire of microeukaryotes in the human gut has been poorly explored, mainly in individuals living in northern hemisphere countries. We further explored this repertoire using PCR-sequencing and culture in seven individuals living in four tropical countries. A total of 41 microeukaryotes including 38 different fungal species and three protists were detected. Four fungal species, Davidiell...

Deep-seated trichosporonosis is a lethal opportunistic infection that disseminates rapidly and widely in immunocompromised patients, and early diagnosis is crucial for the treatment of this infection. We developed a novel nested-PCR assay that detects DNA specific for clinically important strains of Trichosporon in serum samples from patients with disseminated trichosporonosis. In this assay, t...

A total of 2,886 bats captured in the Amazon Basin of Brazil were processed for the isolation of fungi. From the livers, spleens, and lungs of 155 bats (5.4%), 186 fungal isolates of the genera Candida (123 isolates), Trichosporon (26 isolates), Torulopsis (25 isolates), Kluyveromyces (11 isolates), and Geotrichum (1 isolate) were recovered. Seven known pathogenic species were present: Candida ...

Abstract Fermentative production of microbial lipid requires high fresh water input. The utilization saline seawater or industrial wastewater is an important alternative to reduce the freshwater consumption. This study revealed that oleaginous yeast Trichosporon cutaneum was tolerant a salinity up 130 g/L NaCl after long-term adaptive evolution. Lipid fermentation T. in achieved 31.7 with appro...