Open AccessDifferent species of Aspergillus involved in ungual pathologies
Author(s) -
Mirca Zotti,
Marco Machetti,
A Persi,
Gianfranco Barabino,
Mauro Mariotti,
Alessia Parodi
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of biological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.218
H-Index - 6
eISSN - 2284-0230
pISSN - 1826-8838
DOI - 10.4081/jbr.2011.4691
Subject(s) - medical mycology , biology , mycology , aspergillus , identification (biology) , fungus , dermatophyte , fungal pathogen , microbiology and biotechnology , computational biology , evolutionary biology , botany , pathogen
In recent years non dermatophyte fungi (NDF) are often described as responsible for onychomycosis. The problem related to these fungi concern their identification and treatment. Nowadays a number of Aspergillus were observed in this kind of pathologies but the identification at level of species is frequently omitted. In this work we analysed 26 cases of onychomycosis caused by Aspergillus, belonging to 8 different species. The identification were based on micro- and macro-morphological characteristics; physiological characters; and molecular analysis (B-tubulin gene). 3 species are very interesting: A. perii, a species recently described; A.nominus, never described before in onychomycosis, and A.melleus, likely a new opportunistic fungus involved in medical mycology. Though the identification of these fungi is an additional workload for the laboratory of medical mycology, there is the need to increase the number of identified NDF in order to improve the management of onychomycosis