Sporothrix brunneoviolaceaandSporothrix dimorphospora, two new members of theOphiostoma stenoceras-Sporothrix schenckiicomplex

Abstract

Sporothrix inflata is a saprobic member of the Ophiostoma stenoceras-Sporothrix schenckii species complex, reported mainly from soil. Ophiostoma bragantinum, an ascomycete described from Brazil, has been proposed as its possible teleomorph. Previous studies revealed that Sporothrix inflata is phenotypically and genetically variable, suggesting the existence of cryptic species. During a continued survey on the biodiversity of microfungi from different countries, seven isolates morphologically similar to S. inflata were obtained from soil samples collected in Spain and USA. In this study their phenotypic features and phylogenetic relationships were assessed. DNA sequence data of two nuclear loci revealed that these isolates correspond to two unnamed clades in S. inflata s.l., one of which also included the type strain of Humicola dimorphospora, a species that traditionally has been considered a synonym of S. inflata. These two groups are proposed herein as Sporothrix brunneoviolacea sp. nov. and Sporothrix dimorphospora comb. nov. S. brunneoviolacea is characterized phenotypically by the production of a diffusible violet-brown pigment in culture and mostly globose, pigmented, lateral blastoconidia. On the other hand S. dimorphospora lacks diffusible pigments and shows mostly subglobose to obovoid pigmented lateral blastoconidia. In contrast to the type strain of S. inflata S. brunneoviolacea and S. dimorphospora assimilate raffinose. The phylogenetic analysis suggested that the proposed anamorph-teleomorph connection between S. inflata and O. bragantinum might not be correct.

Characterization of virulence profile, protein secretion and immunogenicity of differentSporothrix schenckii sensu strictoisolates compared withS. globosaandS. brasiliensisspecies

“…The CAL and ITS sequences used as reference for phylogenetic analysis were selected based on sequences deposited by De Beer et al, 36 Kawasaki et al, 37 Watanabe et al, 38 Aghayeva et al, 39 Marimon et al, 11,12 Gujjari et al, 40 De Meyer et al, 41 Madrid et al, 42 Romeo et al 13 and Rodrigues et al 4 Both sequences, ITS and CAL loci of the same reference isolate, were not always available, thus, the data were analyzed separately.…”

“…Some studies have investigated the protein secretion profile of Sporothrix, 43,44 the genetic variability, 11,12,41,42 as well as virulence of some new species. 2,3 This is the first study which evaluates the protein secretion of S. brasiliensis, S. globosa and S. schenckii s. str.…”

“…45 In addition, the ITS region was sequenced using primers ITS1 and ITS4, which amplify the 18S, ITS1, 5.8S, ITS2 and 28S 46 in order to verify if these isolates were similar to other environmental Sporothrix isolates described by De Meyer et al 41 and Madrid et al 42 Amplified products were gel purified with the Wizard SV Gel and PCR Clean-Up System (Promega Corp.), following were in agreement, except for Ss40, Ss47 and Ss141. The Ss40 isolate induced medium fungal loads of all the analyzed organs but the higher inoculum of yeast cells it could induce high mortality as S. brasiliensis (Ss54, CBS 132990).…”

“…Calmodulin sequences (n = 55) from other isolates of S. schenckii (n = 25), S. brasiliensis (n = 8), S. mexicana (n = 5), S. globosa (n = 12), S. pallida (n = 4) and S. luriei (n = 1), as well as ITS sequences (n = 39) from S. schenckii (n = 15), S. brasiliensis (n = 4), S. mexicana (n = 1), S. globosa (n = 4), S. pallida (n = 1), S. luriei (n = 1), S. inflata (n = 1), S. dimorphospora (n = 2), S. stylites (n = 2), S. humicola (n = 2), S. brunneoviolacea (n = 2), S. lignivora (n = 2) and Ophiostoma stenoceras (n = 2) were included in the present study as reference strains for the phylogenetic analysis. These sequences were previously deposited at GenBank (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank) and described by De Beer et al, 36 Kawasaki et al, 37 Watanabe et al, 38 Aghayeva et al, 39 Marimon et al, 11,12 Gujjari et al, 40 De Meyer et al, 41 Madrid et al, 42 Romeo et al 13 and Rodrigues et al 4 Evolutionary analyses were conducted in MEGA5 49 with Maximum Likelihood method. Evolutionary distances were computed using the Kimura 2-parameter method 50 with a discrete Gamma distribution for the CAL data set and Tamura 3-parameter method 51 for ITS data set, with 1,000 bootstrap replicates.…”

Canine sporotrichosis: report of 15 advanced cases

“…Molecular phylogenetic analyses have shown that several species exist within the S. schenckii species complex (Marimon et al 2006, Madrid et al 2010, Criseo & Romeo 2010. The most common presentation of sporotrichosis in animals and humans is a chronic granulomatous lymphocutaneous infection that can spread due to immunodepression (Rosser & Dunstan 2006, Cafarchia et al 2007).…”