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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, January 2009, p. 48-53, Vol. 47, No. 1
0095-1137/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.01422-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Physiological and Molecular Characterization of Atypical Isolates of Malassezia furfur{triangledown}

A. González, R. Sierra, M. E. Cárdenas, A. Grajales, S. Restrepo, M. C. Cepero de García, and A. Celis*

Laboratorio de Micología y Fitopatología, Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia

Received 24 July 2008/ Returned for modification 12 September 2008/ Accepted 19 October 2008

The species constituting the genus Malassezia are considered to be emergent opportunistic yeasts of great importance. Characterized as lipophilic yeasts, they are found in normal human skin flora and sometimes are associated with different dermatological pathologies. We have isolated seven Malassezia species strains that have a different Tween assimilation pattern from the one typically used to differentiate M. furfur, M. sympodialis, and M. slooffiae from other Malassezia species. In order to characterize these isolates of Malassezia spp., we studied their physiological features and conducted morphological and molecular characterization by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism and sequencing of the 26S and 5.8S ribosomal DNA-internal transcribed spacer 2 regions in three strains from healthy individuals, four clinical strains, and eight reference strains. The sequence analysis of the ribosomal region was based on the Blastn algorithm and revealed that the sequences of our isolates were homologous to M. furfur sequences. To support these findings, we carried out phylogenetic analyses to establish the relationship of the isolates to M. furfur and other reported species. All of our results confirm that all seven strains are M. furfur; the atypical assimilation of Tween 80 was found to be a new physiological pattern characteristic of some strains isolated in Colombia.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Laboratorio de Micología y Fitopatología (LAMFU) J-205, Universidad de los Andes, Cra. 1 No. 18A-10, Bogotá, Colombia. Phone: (571) 339-4949, ext. 3757. Fax: (571) 339-4949, ext. 2817. E-mail: acelis{at}uniandes.edu.co

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 29 October 2008.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, January 2009, p. 48-53, Vol. 47, No. 1
0095-1137/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.01422-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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