This report describes a 2-year-old child with neuroectodermal tumor presenting with febrile neutropenia. Blood cultures drawn from the peripheral vein and Hickman catheter revealed Kluyvera cryocrescens growth. The Hickman catheter was removed and the patient was successfully treated with cefepime and amikacin. Isolation of Kluyvera spp. from clinical specimens is rare. This saprophyte microorg...

The gram negative rod Acinetobacter baumannii is a soil and water saprophyte characterized by a high degree of innate and acquired antibiotic resistance. While it can colonize healthy hosts, it is also a well-established hospital-acquired pathogen, especially in intensive care and surgical units. The pathogen does not have many of the traditional virulence factors for producing disease in healt...

Cryptococcal infections are fungal infections most commonly seen in immunocompromised patients. Chronic high-dose steroid may precipitate such an immunocompromised state and thus create susceptibility to fungal infections. Cryptococcus neoformans is a saprophyte usually found in soil contaminated with pigeon droppings. Suspicion to diagnose begins with clinical symptoms that can be non-specific...

Aspergillus flavus is one of the predominant causative organisms of mycotic keratitis in tropical parts of the world. Extracellular proteins are the earliest proteins that come in contact with the host and have a role in the infection process. Exoproteins of A. flavus isolated from infected cornea, sputum and a saprophyte were pooled and identified using high resolution mass spectrometry in ord...

The dematiaceous fungus Cladosporium cladosporioides (C. cladosporioides) is a widely distributed saprophyte that occasionally infects the lung, skin, eye and brain in both immunocompetent or immunosuppressed hosts. We report a rare case of an immunocompetent 56-year-old male patient who presents with a six-year history of onychomycosis caused by C. cladosporioides following trauma. The patient...

Basidiobolus ranarum is a widespread saprophyte fungus with pathogenic potential. It affects mainly the subcutaneous tissues of the trunk and limbs. Relatively recently, occasional reports of gastrointestinal basidiobolomycosis appeared in the literature. Due to the rarity of the condition and the nonspecific presenting features, the correct diagnosis is usually hard to reach. In this paper, we...

Listeria monocytogenes is a facultative pathogenic bacterium that lives in the environment as a saprophyte but can turn into a harmful pathogen affecting humans as well as animals upon ingestion. These bacteria have the remarkable capacity to actively invade eukaryotic host cells, to multiply within them, and to spread to neighbouring cells (Freitag et al., 2009). The transition from an environ...

The spirochetes of the Leptospira genus contain saprophytic and pathogenic members, the latter being responsible for leptospirosis. Despite the recent sequencing of the genome of the pathogen L. interrogans, the slow growth of these bacteria, their virulence in humans, and a lack of genetic tools make it difficult to work with these pathogens. In contrast, the development of numerous genetic to...

This study demonstrates that the accumulation of apoplastic phenolics is stimulated in planta in response to bacterial inoculation. Past studies have shown that levels of extracellular phenolics are elicited in plant cell suspensions in response to bacteria, and that tomato plants infected with viroids showed changes in apoplastic phenolics. The method described here monitored changes in apopla...