Diversity of coelomycetous fungi in human infections: a 10-year experience of two European reference centres

Abstract

The coelomycetous fungi are difficult to properly identify from their phenotypic characterization and their role as etiologic agents of human infections is not clear. We studied the species distribution of these fungi among clinical isolates that had been collected and stored over a ten-year period in two European reference laboratories (France and Spain). We identified phenotypically and molecularly 97 isolates by sequencing the D1-D2 fragment of the 28S nrRNA (LSU) gene. Species of the orders Pleosporales and Glomerellales were present in both collections, and Botryosphaeriales and Diaporthales only in the French one. The most prevalent species were Medicopsis romeroi, Neocucurbitaria keratinophila, Neocucurbitaria unguis-hominis and Paraconiothyrium cyclothyrioides, which had been recovered primarily from superficial tissues. The Didymellaceae was the most common family represented, with 27 isolates distributed into five genera.