Coccidioidomycosis is a common cause of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in disease-endemic areas. Because testing rates influence interpretation of reportable-disease data and quality of CAP patient care, we determined the proportion of CAP patients who were tested for Coccidioides spp., identified testing predictors, and determined the proportion of tested patients who had positive coccidio...

The formaldehyde-killed, whole-spherule vaccine, which is protective against lethal challenge of laboratory animals with Coccidioides immitis, was fractionated. It yielded a soluble, multicomponent, subcellular fraction termed the 27K vaccine. This vaccine, when it was accompanied by adjuvant, protected mice against lethal intranasal and intravenous challenge with C. immitis.

Pappagianis, D. (University of California, Berkeley), E. W. Putman, and G. S. Kobayashi. Polysaccharide of Coccidioides immitis. J. Bacteriol. 82:714-723. 1961.-Soluble polysaccharide from mycelia or culture filtrates of Coccidioides immitis was found to consist mainly of mannose, but also included small quantities of galactose and another reducing sugar. Isolation of the polysaccharide by etha...

To get a comprehensive view of fungal M35 family (deuterolysin) and M36 family (fungalysin) genes, we conducted genome-wide investigations and phylogenetic analyses of genes in these two families from 50 sequenced Ascomycota fungi with different life styles. Large variations in the number of M35 family and M36 family genes were found among different fungal genomes, indicating that these two gen...

Three antigens with proteolytic activity have been isolated from crude, water-soluble fractions of the saprobic phase of the fungal pathogen Coccidioides immitis. Two proteinases, identified in our immunoelectrophoresis reference system as Ag11 and AgCS, were isolated from the soluble conidial wall fraction (SCWF). Ag11 was previously shown to be a serine proteinase and was characterized in thi...

Spherules of Coccidioides immitis strain Silveira produced in vitro were treated with chitinase and lysozyme. The walls of merthiolate-killed mature endosporulating spherules were degraded by chitinase (500 mug/ml) and by lysozyme (100 and 500 mug/ml). Thus, as was visible through the light microscope, the spherule wall was reduced in thickness from 1 to 2 mum to less than 0.5 mum. The degradat...

The ribosomal Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) regions of the two recognized species of Coccidioides were studied using a reference set of strains that had been previously identified with species defining microsatellite polymorphisms. Unambiguous identification of the two species proved to be possible by amplifying and sequencing the ITS region. PCR-reactions are sensitive to amplification con...