A factor produced by Candida albicans, which inhibits dermatophyte growth and induces arthrospore formation is characterized and identified. Candida dermatophyte inhibitory factor (CDIF) is volatile and fungistatic. Analysis of volatile materials produced by C. albicans was subsequently identified as carbon dioxide. The involvement of carbon dioxide in the inhibition of dermatophytes was demonstrated by: (1) utilization of commercial carbon dioxide to produce dermatophyte inhibition as well as arthrospore formation, and (2) prevention of dermatophyte inhibition by C. albicans through incoporation of soda lime into the incubation atmosphere. The ability of carbon dioxide to inhibit dermatophyte growth was shared with other gases (methane and helium), but arthrospore formation was observed only with carbon dioxide. The possible significance of carbon dioxide's induction of arthrospores, a form occasionally observed in active dermatophyte lesions, is discussed.
An agar medium containing inositol and urea as sole carbon and nitrogen sources, caffeic acid and ferric citrate as agents for the selective pigmentation of Cryptococcus neoformans, gentamicin as a broad-spectrum bacterial antibiotic, and yeast nitrogen base without amino acids and ammonium sulfate (Difco) was tested against 137 clinical isolates, 4 survey specimens, and 11 ATCC yeast and yeast-like strains. All 28 strains of C. neoformans showed heavy growth and dark brown pigmentation after 36 h. All other tested species of Cryptococcus showed heavy growth after 36 h but only light brown pigmentation after 48 h. No growth was observed in any tested strains of Geotrichum, Pityrosporum, Rhodotorula, Saccharomyces, and Torulopsis. Only the Cryptococcus-like Candida humicola grew of the 8 species and 62 strains of Candida tested. Six of 15 strains of Trichosporon cutaneum and 1 of 2 strains of Trichosporon pullulans showed moderate growth after 48 h. Very different colonial and microscopic morphology and/or the absence of brown pigmentation easily differentiated these strains of T. cutaneum, T. pullulans, and C. humicola from C. neoformans. The growth- and pigmentation-providing characteristics of the medium were unaffected by 2 h of exposure to 254 nm of ultraviolet light.
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