Superficial Mycoses

 Affects only the cornified layers of epidermis (stratum corneum)

1. Pityriasis versicolor / Tineaversicolor

 Found world-wide but more common in tropical than temperate climates.

 Also known as An-An
 It is the discoloration, depigmentation and scaling of the skin and apparent in person
with dark complex

Causative Agent -  Malassezia furfur

Culture: It requires lipid for growth the reason why culture medium is overlaid with olive oil.
Presence of “ Bowling Pin “ Appearance with collarette in culture media.

2. Tinea nigra

 It is a dark brown to black painless patches on the soles of the feet and palms of the
hand
 Sometimes confused to malignant melanoma

Causative Agent - Exophiala werneckii or Phaeoannellomyces werneckii 

Culture: Shiny, moist yeastlike colonies that start with brownish discoloration and eventually
turns to olive to greenish black.

White Piedra

 Affects beard and mustache hair shaft

Causative Agent - Trichosporon beigelii 

Culture: colonies are white or yellowish to deep cream colored, smooth, wrinkled, velvety and
dull in appearance with a mycelial fringe.

4. Black Piedra

 Affect the hair’s hair shaft

Causative Agent - Piedra hortae

Microscopic: thick walled rhomboid cells containing ascospores

 
Cutaneous Mycoses/ Dermatophytes

 Affect the keratinized tissue of the skin, hair and nails 

 Also known as Ringworm
 Hyaline(moniliaceous) means non pigmented or lightly pigmented
 Dematiceous mold means pigmented, dark in color, usually gray to black.

A. Infection of the Skin

1. Tinea corporis


o Also known as “BUNI”
o Pruritic

2. Tinea cruris


o Also known as “HADHAD”
o Red patched on the groin and scrotum

3. Tinea pedis

 Also known as ALIPUNGA or Athlete’s Foot

 Cracking and peeling of skin that begins in the between of the toes

4. Tinea manum

 Hand and Finger

Causative Agents 

Infection of Skin

Trichophyton rubrum

Epidermophyton floccosum

Trichophyton mentagrophytes

Infection of the Hair


o Ectothrix / Endothrix

1. Tinea barbae
2. Tinea capitis
3. Microsporum canis
4. Trichophyton verrucosum
5. Trichophyton tonsurans

 2nd most common cause of infection of the hair

 Severe infection of the scalp and skin “favus”

Infection of the Nail

1. Tinea unguium

 Also known as Onchomycosis

 Caused by T. mentagrophytes, T.rubrum and E. floccosum

Subcutaneous mycoses

 Involves subcutaneous muscle and tissues

1. Sporotrichosis

 Rose Gardener’s Disease/ Rose handler’s disease 

 Sporothrix schenckii
 Dimorphic fungi

2. Chromoblastomycosis

 Caused by variety of copper colored soil saprophytes which are non-healing tumor like
lesions resembling cauliflower
 Also known as “Copper pennies”

Causative Agents of Chromoblastomycosis based on morphology

1. Phialophora verrucosa 
2. Cladosporium carrionii
3. Fonsecaea pedrosoi 

3. Maduromycosis

 Granulomatous tumor of subcutaneous tissues characterized by tumor like deformities

 Causative Agent is Pseudoallesheria boydii
Three Forms:

 F. pedrosoi
 P, verrucosa
 C. carrionii

         3b. Actinomyces/ Nocardia is called actinomycotic mycetoma


o Most common isolate to human is Actinomyces israeli
o Most common isolate to human is Nocardia asteroides

4. Phaeohyphomycosis

 rare infection by dermaticeous saprobes invading organs like skin, lungs and brain of
immunosuppressed host
 mycotic disease caused by darkly pigmented fungi or fungi with melanin on the cell wall
 causative agent is Exophiala jeanselmei

Systemic Mycoses/ Deep Mycoses

 Caused by Dimorphic Fungi

 Acquired through inhalation
 Localized lung infection and bloodstream infection 

1. Blastomycosis / Gilchrist Disease / North American Blastomycosis/ Chicago

disease

 higher incidence to middle aged man due to recreational exposure to soil

 causative agent - Blastomyces dermatitidis 

2. Coccidiodes immitis 

 Filipinos and Blacks run the highest risk of dissemination

 High incidence in male than female (9:1) except for pregnant women
 causes San Joaquin Valley fever

3. Histoplasma capsulatum

 Darling’s disease/ Central Mississippi Valley Fever and Ohio Valley Fever 

4. Paracoccidiodes braziliensis

 South American Blastomycosis/ Brazillian blastomycosis

5. Penicillium marneffei
 Most common cause of systemic infection in immunocompromised host in endemic
region of southeast Asia
 Green or Blue Green Colonies
 Branching or Penicillus head 

Opportunistic Mycoses

 Develops among immunocompromised host

1. Cryptococcus neoformans

 Disease is known as Torulosis European Blastomycosis

 Meningitis and Pulmonary Disease
 Capsule is demonstrated by india ink

2. Candida albicans

 Most common cause of fungal diseases worldwide

 Can cause disease to any site
 Thrush – oral infection on immunosuppressed host
 Normal biota of the skin

3. Mucor

 Seen in patients with diabetic ketoacidosis

4. Aspergillus

 Pulmonary disease
 Eschar biopsy for specimen

Types of Aspergillus

1. Aspergillus niger = presence of black pepper effect on culture media

2. Aspergillus fumigatus = most common cause of pulmonary aspergillosis
3. Aspergillus flavus = yellow colony
4. Aspergillus terreus = brown colony

 
5. Rhodotorulla

 Contaminant but considered as an opportunistic pathogen

 Pink to Coral colored colonies

6. Fusarium

 Usually a contaminant but are sometimes seen as cause of mycotic eye, nail or skin
infection in debilitated patient
 Presence of multiseptate macroconidia appearing as sickles or canoes  

7. Pneumocystis carinii

 Classified as : Fungi ; Formerly ; Parasite

 Gomori methenamine silver is stain of choice for cyst but not trophozoite
 It shows cup shaped cyst and cannot be cultured
 Associated with pneumonia that is resistant to antibiotic

Aerial – mycelium, hyphal units above the colony agar interface

Anthropophilic – a fungus (dermatophyte) that preferentially grows on man rather than other

   animals or the soil.

Arthroconidium – a thallic conidium released by either the splitting of a double septum or by the
fragmentation or lysis of a dysjunctor cell. pl. arthroconidia

Ascocarp – a fruiting body containing asci and ascospores

Ascomycetes – a group of fungi that reproduce sexually by the endogenous formation of

ascospores in an ascus.

Ascospore – a haploid spore produced within an ascus following karyogamy and meiosis

Ascus – a sac-like cell containing ascospores. Asci are characteristic of Ascomycetes. Pl. asci

Aseptate – lacking septa often pertaining to the hyphae seen in zygomycetes

Basidium – a cell that gives rise to a basidiospore. Basidia are characteristic of the Basidiomyc
etes

Basidiomycetes – a group of fungi that reproduce sexually by the exogenous formation of

basidiospores from a basidium

Basidiospore – a haploid spore produced on a basidium following karyogamy and meiosis

Blastocatenate – a chain of conidia having the youngest cell at the tip

Blastoconidium – an asexual conidium that forms by a blowing out or budding process. Pl.
blastoconidia
Base – junction of a bud and the mother cell of a yeast

Bud – a type of asexual reproduction commonly found in yeasts

Capsule – hyaline mucopolysaccharide covering around the body of certain yeasts

   (Cryptococcus, Rhodotorula)

Catenulate – conidia arranged in chains

Clavate – club-shaped

Cleistothecium – an enclosed ascocarp containing randomly dispersed asci. Pl. cleistothecia

Collarette – a remnant of a cell wall present at the tip of a phialide, or around a sporangiophore

Columella – a sterile dome-like structure at the tip of a sporangiophore or within a sporangium.

Chlamydospore – thick-walled resistant resting spore, esp in Histoplasma capsulatum

Coenocytic – without septa

Columella – a sterile invagination of a sporangium (Zygomycetes)

Conidiogenous cell – cell that gives rise to a conidium

Conidium – reproductive propagule produced in the absence of nuclear recombination,

representing   anamorphic or asexual reproduction

Conidiophore– specialized hypha that gives rise to, or bears a conidium

Dermatophyte – infection of hair, skin and nails caused by fungi other than dermatophytes

Dematiaceous – fungus having brown or black melanotic pigment in the cell wall

Dichotomous – type of branching of hyphae that is repetitious without pattern, branches are

   approximately equal in size and the stem from which they originated

Dimorphic – having two forms

Deuteromycetes – an artificial subdivision to accommodate those fungi where only the asexual
state is known

Dichotomous – a type of hyphal branching into two equal forks

Dysgonic – a slow growing variant

Echinulate – covered with delicate spines

Ectothrix – forming a sheath of arthroconidia on the outside of a hair shaft. Cuticle of the hair

   is destroyed.

Endothrix – arthroconidia formed inside a hair shaft. Cuticle of the hair remains intact

Floccose – fluffy or cottony

Fruiting body – reproductive structures of fungi (spores)

Fungemia – presence of fungi in the blood

Germ tube – initial hypha from a sprouting conidia, spore or yeast

Heterothallic – a fungus that requires mating between two compatible strains for sexual
reproduction to occur

Hilum – a scar at the base of a conidium

Holoblastic – a mode of blastic conidium ontogeny in which all the cell wall layers of the
conidiogenous cell are involved in conidium development

Holothallic – amode of thallic conidium ontogeny in which all the cell wall layers of the
conidiogenous cell are involved in conidium development

Homothallic – a fungus capable of sexual reproduction on a single thallus

Hyaline/Hyalo – colourless

Hypha – a single/vegetative filament of a fungus. Pl. Hyphae

Intercalary – formed within a hyphal unit

Macroconidium – the larger of two different types of conidia produced by a fungus in the same
manner

Microconidium – smaller of two types of conidia produced in the same manner by the same
fungus

Mycelium – mass of hyphae making up a fungus colony

Metula – a sterile cell below the phialides of some Aspergillus and Penicillium species. Pl.
Metulae

Microconidium – the smaller of two different types of conidia produced by a fungus in the same
manner

Niger – black

Nonseptate – without septa

Pectinate – like the teeth of a comb

Phaeo – darkly pigmented

Pseudohypha – fragile string of cells that result from the budding of blastoconidia that have
remained  attached to each other

Pellicle – a film-like or skin-like surgace growth

Penicillus – the brush-like conidiophore of Penicillium. Pl. Penicilli

Phialide – a specialized conidiogenous cell that produces conidia in basipetal succession without
increasing in length
Pleomorphic – having more than one form

Pseudohyphae - a string of elongated blastoconidia formed in some yeasts that resemble a

hypha-like filament

Pyriform – pear-shaped

Racquet hyphae – a hypha composed of a number of cells swollen at one end resembling a
tennis racquet

Rhizoid – root like structure. Used in the ID of some Zygomycetes

Septum – a cross wall in a hypha. Pl. septa

Spinulose/Spinose – covered in small spines

Sporangiophore – specialized hypha that gives rise to a sporangium

Sporangiospore – an asexual spore produced within a sporangium; reproductive unit formed in

a sporangium

Sporangium – a sac-like structure producing asexual spores endogenously by cytoplasmic

cleavage.

Spore – a reproductive propagule formed by either meiosis or mitosis. However, if by asexual

means, cleavage of cytoplasm is usually involved.

Stellate – star-shaped

Sterigma – a small pointed structure upon which a basiospore forms. Pl. sterigmata

Stolon – a running hypha from which rhizoids and sporangiospores arise

Septum – a cross wall

Teleomorph – sexual state of a fungus

Terminal – formed at the end of a structure

Tuberculate – spines or finger-like projections on macroconidia (Histoplasma capsulatum); wart

like structures

Thallic – a mode of conidial ontogeny where a conidium is formed from a pre-existing hyphal
segment or cell

Toruloid – having swellings at intervals

Uniserate – phialides arising directly from a vesicle as in Aspergillus

Verrucose – having many warts

Vesicle – swollen or bladder-like cell

Yeast – unicellular fungus, usually round or ovoid, that reproduces by budding

Zoophilic – infecting lower animals rather than man

Zygospores – a thick-walled sexual spore formed by the fusion of two similar gametangia;
characteristic of the Zygomycetes