IMA Fungus 12(1): e33922, doi: 10.1186/s43008-021-00075-x
A revision of malbranchea-like fungi from clinical specimens in the United States of America reveals unexpected novelty
Jose Francisco Cano-Lira, José F. Cano-Lira‡, Nathan Wiederhold§, Alba Pérez-Cantero‡, Josep Guarro‡, Alberto M. Stchigel‡‡ Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Mycology Unit, Medical School, Reus, Spain§ University of Texas Health Science Center, Fungus Testing Laboratory, San Antonio
© Jose Francisco Cano-Lira, José Cano-Lira, Nathan Wiederhold, Alba Pérez-Cantero, Josep Guarro, Alberto Stchigel. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits to copy and distribute the article for non-commercial purposes, provided that the article is not altered or modified and the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Cano-Lira JF, Cano-Lira JF, Wiederhold N, Pérez-Cantero A, Guarro J, Stchigel AM (2021) A revision of malbranchea-like fungi from clinical specimens in the United States of America reveals unexpected novelty. IMA Fungus 12(1): e33922. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43008-021-00075-x |  |
Abstract
The fungi of the order Onygenales can cause important human infections; however, their taxonomy and worldwide occurrence is still little known. We have studied and identified a representative number of clinical fungi belonging to that order from a reference laboratory in the USA. A total of 22 strains isolated from respiratory tract (40%) and human skin and nails (27.2%) showed a malbranchea-like morphology. Six genera were phenotypically and molecularly identified, i.e. Auxarthron/Malbranchea (68.2%), Arachnomyces (9.1%), Spiromastigoides (9.1%), and Currahmyces (4.5%), and two newly proposed genera (4.5% each). Based on the results of the phylogenetic study, we synonymized Auxarthron with Malbranchea, and erected two new genera: Pseudoarthropsis and Pseudomalbranchea. New species proposed are: Arachnomyces bostrychodes, A. graciliformis, Currahmyces sparsispora, Malbranchea gymnoascoides, M. multiseptata, M. stricta, Pseudoarthropsis crassispora, Pseudomalbranchea gemmata, and Spiromastigoides geomycoides, along with a new combination for Malbranchea gypsea. The echinocandins showed the highest in vitro antifungal activity against the studied isolates, followed by terbinafine and posaconazole; in contrast, amphotericin B, fluconazole, itraconazole and 5-fluorocytosine were less active or lacked in vitro activity against these fungi.
Keywords
Antifungals, Arachnomycetales, Auxarthron, Clinical fungi, Malbranchea, Onygenales, New taxa