Abstract
BackgroundSporotrichosis is a cutaneous and subcutaneous fungal disease of humans and other mammals, known to be caused by the Sporothrix schenckii species complex, which comprises four species of clinical importance: S. brasiliensis, S. globosa, S. luriei, and S. schenckii sensu stricto. Of them, S. globosa and S. schenckii s. str. show global distribution and differences in global frequency as causal agents of the disease. In the Americas, only three species are present: S. schenckii s. str., S. brasiliensis (so far, only reported in Brazil), and S. globosa. In Venezuela, since the first case of sporotrichosis reported in 1935, S. schenckii have been considered its unique etiological agent. In the present work, the presence of more than one species in the country was evaluated.MethodsBy phenotypic key features and molecular phylogeny analyses, we re-examined 30 isolates from diverse Venezuelan regions belonging to the fungi collection of Instituto de Biomedicina, Caracas, Venezuela, and national reference center for skin diseases. All isolates were collected between 1973 and 2013, and maintained in distilled water.ResultsSporotrichosis in Venezuela is mainly caused by S. schenckii s. str. (70%). However, a significant proportion (30%) of sporotrichosis cases in the country can be attributable to S. globosa. A correlation between intraspecific genotypes and clinical presentation is proposed.ConclusionsOur data suggest that sporotrichosis various clinical forms might be related to genetic diversity of isolates, and possibly, to diverse virulence profiles previously reported in the S. schenckii species complex. Sporothrix globosa was found to be the causative agent of 30% of sporotrichosis for the Venezuelan cases re-examined, the highest frequency of this species so far reported in the Americas. The high genetic variability presented by S. schenckii s. str. indicates that species distinction based on phenotypic key features could be a challenging and uncertain task; molecular identification should be always employed.
Highlights
Sporotrichosis is a cutaneous and subcutaneous fungal disease of humans and other mammals, known to be caused by the Sporothrix schenckii species complex, which comprises four species of clinical importance: S. brasiliensis, S. globosa, S. luriei, and S. schenckii sensu stricto
A total of 30 previously identified S. schenckii Venezuelan isolates (29 clinical and 1 environmental) (Table 1) were re-examined on the basis of phenotypic key features, as well as molecular phylogeny inferred from CAL and ITS sequences
Based on the result obtained for reference strain S. globosa FMR 9023 (Table 2), restricted growth at 37°C was set at ≤ 6.4 mm colony diameter
Summary
Sporotrichosis is a cutaneous and subcutaneous fungal disease of humans and other mammals, known to be caused by the Sporothrix schenckii species complex, which comprises four species of clinical importance: S. brasiliensis, S. globosa, S. luriei, and S. schenckii sensu stricto. Over the last few years, the Sporothrix schenckii species complex (formerly known as S. schenckii) has received special interest due to the increasing number of infections caused by it worldwide, in immunocompromised patients [1], and epidemic outbreaks in cats in Brazil [2]. It is responsible for sporotrichosis, a Camacho et al BMC Infectious Diseases (2015) 15:94 disease is transmitted to humans or other animals [6,7,8]. Morphological and physiological key features have been proposed for species recognition within the Sporothrix species complex [18,19]
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