FASCINATING FUNGAL FACTS FOR FRIENDS of MICROBIOLOGY

Is this a Fun GUY - or What?

Yes, but that isn’t what we had in mind.

No, you may not like them at first but after while, as you can see Fungi will

GROW on you

This is a pretty extreme case of Athlete’s foot. Oooh! Pass the Dr. Scholls. The organism responsible for this unfortunate situation goes by the Genus name of Tinea. a nondescriptor but most of us are itchin’ to get rid of it! Superficial pathogens are the rule in fungi. Most of them cannot tolerate the high temperature at the core of animals bodies but a select group of them, are true pathogens and that means that they are able to cause systemic infection even in young, healthy, non-immunocompromised adults. You’d already know this if you were registered in Health Science Microbiology at one of our campus locations.What is different about them? They possess Thermal Dimorphism. Essentially, in their wild form in culture they look like a regular “Mold” as you can see here, normal fungal colony morphology at room temperature, however, if they successfully evade bodily defenses and infect someone, they alter their morphology to a yeast-like form as you can see in the case of these two colonial types of Histoplasma capsulatum, Normal fungus in the picture above, and yeast like form in the picture below

In the normal fungal or Hyphal , form they wouldn’t be capable of easily entering the bloodstream and traveling through it, but in their yeast form, they can. They can travel to all of the major organs in that form and they can cause anything from mild, sub-clinical infection to fulminating, fatal ones.. Here in Iowa, Histoplasmosis is a relatively common disease but fortunately is usually asymptomatic.

Another type of fungal infection which is endemic to The Mississippi and Ohio Valley areas of the United states plus other areas in Central and South America is known as Blastomyces dermatitides which looks like this in its hyphal morphology

as seen here from a cultural speciman

and like the picture below in its yeast form in this sample of Sputum. The arrow points to a large rounded cell with the thick cell wall characteristic of the species. Blastomyces also can be a pulmonary or systemic infection and can be sub-clinical and asymptomatic as it most commonly is, or it too can be fulminating and fatal.

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Another type of fungus which we would all be glad to forget is Candida albicans which is a common inhabitant of human bodily orifaces. and our digestive tracts. Unfortunately, it occasionally gets out of control in situations where persons are immunocompromised or where we undergo prolonged antibiotic therapy, or sometimes when our physiology changes temporarilyHere is a slide of Candida albicans in a smear of vaginal exudate. Fortunately, it only causes itching and blistering when present in high numbers such as seen here..

This has been only a superficial tour of the Fascinating world of Fungi. If you wish to learn more, you should Sign Up for Health Science Microbiology at one of the DMACC sites.

Bacteria - Some Interesting Bacteria and Facts About Them

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Thanks for stopping by. I’ll see you in cyberspace!