Magnusiomyces capitatus (previously known as Geotrichum capitatum or Blastoschizomyces capitatus or Trichosporon capitatum) is a rare cause of fungal infection in immunocompromised patients. Most of these cases (87%) have been reported from the Mediterranean region, as it is extremely rare to recognize it in other regions. Here we report a first case of disseminated M. capitatus infection in Slovakia. The patient – 19 year old woman with myelodysplastic syndrome was diagnosed with M. capitatus fungemia after allogeneic stem cell transplantation. The infection occurred despite antifungal prophylaxis with micafungin, which was in vitro sensitive to the yeast. The treatment according to minimal inhibitory concentrations (micafungin, voriconazol) and granulocyte transfusions were administered. M. capitatus was cleared out from the bloodstream. However, patient died of multiple organ failure. Autopsy showed multiple lesions in organs, but did not prove presence of yeast by histopathology. M. capitatus was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction from all tested organs: heart, brain, lungs, spleen, liver and kidneys. We present the post mortem pictures showing the yeast lesions in affected organs. 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Despite advances in the treatment of invasive fungal diseases (IFD), mortality rates remain high. Moreover, due to the expanding spectrum of causative agents, fast and accurate pathogen identification is necessary. We designed a panfungal polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which targets the highly variable ITS2 region of rDNA genes and uses high resolution melting analysis (HRM) for subsequent species identification. The sensitivity and specificity of this method was tested on a broad spectrum of the most clinically important fungal pathogens including Aspergillus spp., Candida spp. and mucormycetes. Despite the fact that fluid from bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) is one of the most frequently tested materials there is a lack of literature sources aimed at panfungal PCR as an IFD diagnostic tool from BAL samples. The applicability of this method in routine practice was evaluated on 104 BAL samples from immunocompromised patients. Due to high ITS region variability, we obtained divergent melting peaks for different fungal species. Thirteen out of 18 patients with proven or probable IFD were positive. Therefore, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of our method were 67%, 100%, 100%, and 94%, respectively. In our assay, fungal pathogens identification is based on HRM, therefore omitting the expensive and time consuming sequencing step. With the high specificity, positive and negative predictive values, short time needed to obtain a result, and low price, the presented assay is intended to be used as a quick screening method for patients at risk of IFD.

Clostridium beijerinckii is a relatively widely studied, yet non-model, bacterium. While 246 genome assemblies of its various strains are available currently, the diversity of the whole species has not been studied, and it has only been analyzed in part for a missing genome of the type strain. Here, we sequenced and assembled the complete genome of the type strain Clostridium beijerinckii DSM 791T, composed of a circular chromosome and a circular megaplasmid, and used it for a comparison with other genomes to evaluate diversity and capture the evolution of the whole species. We found that strains WB53 and HUN142 were misidentified and did not belong to the Clostridium beijerinckii species. Additionally, we filtered possibly misassembled genomes, and we used the remaining 237 high-quality genomes to define the pangenome of the whole species. By its functional annotation, we showed that the core genome contains genes responsible for basic metabolism, while the accessory genome has genes affecting final phenotype that may vary among different strains. We used the core genome to reconstruct the phylogeny of the species and showed its great diversity, which complicates the identification of particular strains, yet hides possibilities to reveal hitherto unreported phenotypic features and processes utilizable in biotechnology.