background: onychomycosis results from invasion of the nail plate by dermatophytes, yeasts or mould species of fungi. the objective was to determine the etiological agents of onychomycosis. methods: a total of 549 patients clinically suspected of onychomycosis were examined for causative fungal agents. both di­rect microscopy and the cultures of the nail material were performed to identify the ...

PURPOSE The prognosis of people infected with Fungi especially immunocompromised depends on rapid and accurate diagnosis to capitalize on time administration of specific treatments. However, cultures produce false negative results and nucleic-acid amplification techniques require complex post-amplification procedures to differentiate relevant fungal types. The objective of this work was to deve...

Malassezia species are lipophilic yeasts that are members of the normal mycobiota of the skin and mucosal sites of a variety of homeothermic animals. They are also among the few basidiomycetous fungi, such as some Cryptococcus spp., Rhodotorula spp., and Trichosporon spp., that can produce disease in man and animals. However, in contrast with these other species, which are quite often involved ...

Current paradigms assume that gas bubbles cannot be formed within yeasts although these workhorses of the baking and brewing industries vigorously produce and release CO(2) gas. We show that yeasts produce gas bubbles that fill a significant part of the cell. The missing link between intracellular CO(2) production by glycolysis and eventual CO(2) release from cells has therefore been resolve...

In order to establish infections within the mammalian host, pathogens must protect themselves against toxic reactive oxygen species produced by phagocytes of the immune system. The fungal pathogen Histoplasma capsulatum infects both neutrophils and macrophages but the mechanisms enabling Histoplasma yeasts to survive in these phagocytes have not been fully elucidated. We show that Histoplasma y...

The pathogenesis of cryptococcosis, including the events leading to the production of meningoencephalitis, is still largely unknown. Evidence of a transcellular passage of Cryptococcus neoformans across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and subsequent BBB disruption exists, but the paracellular passage of free yeasts and the role of monocytes in yeast dissemination and brain invasion (Trojan horse ...

A rapid, miniaturized, urea broth test useful for detecting urease activity of yeasts was compared to Christensen urea agar. All urease-producing yeasts tested were positive on both media; however, 60% were reactive in the urea R broth within 30 min, and the remainder were reactive within 4 h. This urea multiwell test may be useful as a rapid screening method for detecting urease-producing yeas...

Yeasts are an economically important organism used for ethanol production in the beverage and alternative fuels industries as well as a leavening agent in the baking industry. In addition, pathogenic strains of yeasts are involved in both plant and animal diseases. Concentration and viability determinations are routinely performed for quality control purposes in yeast production, fermentation p...

Studies of metabolic regulation in yeasts have a long history. Yeasts have served as models for the regulation of fermentaive metabolism. Yeasts differ in their partitioning of metabolism between respiration and fermentation, that is, between their use of oxygen and organic compounds as terminal electron acceptors. The respirative route is assumed to yield more ATP. Many yeasts carry out metabo...