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Cyphellophora and its relatives in Phialophora: biodiversity and possible role in human infection

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Abstract

Cyphellophora is a genus of black yeast-like fungi characterised by having simple phialides with multiseptate, curved conidia. Judging from SSU and LSU data, Cyphellophora was found to be located in a well-supported clade within the Chaetothyriales comprising a number of species occurring on human skin and nail. Cyphellophora is phylogenetically close to Phialophora europaea, P. reptans and P. oxyspora, though morphologically these species produce single-celled phialoconidia rather than multiseptate ones. Pseudomicrodochium suttonii and P. fusarioides have dark colonies and phylogenetically fit in with Cyphellophora; the type species of Pseudomicrodochium, P. aciculare, has similar, septate conidia but has a hyaline thallus. In the present study, multilocus phylogenetic analyses were combined with morphology and physiology. Sequences of the internal transcribed spacer region, the DNA dependent RNA polymerase II largest subunit and the partial beta tubulin gene were analysed for a set of 30 strains. Two novel species, Cyphellophora pauciseptata and Phialophora ambigua were discovered. Cyphellophora eucalypti was reduced to synonymy of C. guyanensis. The role of the studied fungi between colonization and infection of human skin was discussed. Putative virulence factors for these black yeast-like fungi were hypothesized to be the ability to assimilate monoaromatic hydrocarbons, to produce melanin pigments, and to tolerate the temperature of epidermal human skin.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the project 11CPD009 of the china desk of the Netherlands Academy of Sciences. We thank Kasper Luijsterburg for his technical assistance for the photographic plates. We thank the reviewers for their suggestions and comments to improve the manuscript. The authors report no conflicts of interest. This study was presented in part at the 18th International Congress of the International Society for Human and Animal Mycology in Berlin, Germany, in 2012 [poster no. P510].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Third Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Peiying Feng, Wei Lai & Chun Lu

  2. Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures, KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre, P.O. Box 85167, 3508 AD, Utrecht, the Netherlands

    Peiying Feng, Qiaoyun Lu, M. J. Najafzadeh, A. H. G. Gerrits van den Ende, Jiufeng Sun, V. A. Vicente & G. S. de Hoog

  3. Xiangyang Central Hospital, Xiangyang, China

    Qiaoyun Lu

  4. Peking University Health Science Center, Research Center for Medical Mycology, Beijing, China

    Qiaoyun Lu, Ruoyu Li & G. S. de Hoog

  5. Department of Parasitology and Mycology, and Cancer Molecular Pathology Research Center, Ghaem Hospital, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

    M. J. Najafzadeh

  6. Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

    M. J. Najafzadeh & G. S. de Hoog

  7. Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Control, Department of Parasitology, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Jiufeng Sun

  8. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Liyan Xi & G. S. de Hoog

  9. Department of Basic Pathology, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, PR, Brazil

    V. A. Vicente

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  1. Peiying Feng
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  4. A. H. G. Gerrits van den Ende
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  8. V. A. Vicente
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  9. Wei Lai
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  11. G. S. de Hoog
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to G. S. de Hoog.

Additional information

Taxonomic novelties: Cyphellophora pauciseptata P. Feng & de Hoog, Phialophora ambigua P. Feng & de Hoog.

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Feng, P., Lu, Q., Najafzadeh, M.J. et al. Cyphellophora and its relatives in Phialophora: biodiversity and possible role in human infection. Fungal Diversity 65, 17–45 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13225-012-0194-5

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