Prototheca wickerhamii Mimicking Yeast: a Cautionary Tale

McMullan, Brendan; Muthiah, K.; Stark, D.; Lee, Lianne; Marriott, D.

doi:10.1128/jcm.00487-11

Cited by 27 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Clinical diagnoses of protothecosis had traditionally been made by histopathological examination of affected tissues and morphological and biochemical examinations of the isolated organism (Matsuda & Matsumoto, 1992;Lass-Flörl and Mayr, 2007). However, these phenotypic analyses often generated ambiguous results, making it difficult to determine the causative species of Prototheca (Casal et al, 1997;McMullan et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prototheca miyajii sp. nov., isolated from a patient with systemic protothecosis

Masuda

Hirose

Ishikawa

et al. 2016

International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology

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Species of the genus Prototheca are achlorophyllous algae and ubiquitous in nature, and so far, six species have been listed in this genus: Prototheca wickerhamii, Prototheca zopfii, Prototheca blaschkeae, Prototheca cutis, Prototheca stagnora and Prototheca ulmea. A strain of the genus Prototheca, IFM 53848 T , was isolated in Japan from a patient with systemic protothecosis and had been designated P. wickerhamii. Our previous study, by using PCR analysis, revealed that its SSU rRNA gene (rDNA) was distinctively larger than that of P. wickerhamii and other species of the genus Prototheca. In this study, molecular analysis showed that the exceptionally large SSU rDNA of IFM 53848 T contains four group I introns. The morphology of IFM 53848 T was indistinguishable from those of P. wickerhamii or P. cutis, and phylogenetic analyses, based on the sequences of the SSU rDNA exons and the D1/D2 region of the large subunit rDNA, indicated that IFM 53848 T was closely related to P. cutis. On the other hand, unlike P. cutis, IFM 53848 T failed to assimilate fructose or lysine and grew well at higher temperatures of up to 42 8C. In addition, the nucleotide sequence of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer and the matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry profile of IFM 53848 T were clearly distinct from those of P. cutis. The results strongly suggest that IFM 53848 T represents a novel species, and so the seventh member of the genus Prototheca, which we have named Prototheca miyajii sp. nov. The unique characteristics of the strain may provide useful insights into the systematic taxonomy of the genus Prototheca.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prototheca miyajii sp. nov., isolated from a patient with systemic protothecosis

Masuda

Hirose

Ishikawa

et al. 2016

International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology

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“…However, these methods tend to generate equivocal results, and it has often been challenging to determine the causative Prototheca species [12,13]. Therefore, it is possible that there have been cases in which the identification was not definitive, although P. wickerhamii among the pathogenic Prototheca spp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ribosomal Internal Transcribed Spacer of Prototheca wickerhamii Has Characteristic Structure Useful for Identification and Genotyping

et al. 2013

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Prototheca species are achlorophyllous algae ubiquitous in nature and known to cause localized and systemic infection both in humans and animals. Although identification of the Prototheca species in clinical specimens is a challenge, there are an increasing number of cases in which molecular techniques have successfully been used for diagnosis of protothecosis. In this study, we characterized nuclear ribosomal DNA (rDNA) of a strain of Prototheca (FL11-0001) isolated from a dermatitis patient in Japan for its species identification. When nuclear rDNA of FL11-0001 and that of various other Prototheca strains were compared by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the results indicated that the sizes of ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) were different in a species-dependent manner, suggesting that the variation might be useful for differentiation of Prototheca spp. Especially, ITS of P. wickerhamii, the most common cause of human protothecosis, was distinctively larger than that of other Prototheca spp. FL11-0001, whose ITS was comparably large, could easily be identified as P. wickerhamii. The usefulness of the PCR analysis of ITS was also demonstrated by the discovery that one of the clinical isolates that had previously been designated as P. wickerhamii was likely a novel species. Furthermore, our data demonstrated that nucleotide sequences of P. wickerhamii ITS are heterogenous between different rDNA copies in each strain and also polymorphic between strains. Phylogenetic analysis suggested that the ITS sequences could be classified to four clades, based on which P. wickerhamii strains might be grouped into at least two genotypes. Comprehensive characterization of Prototheca rDNA may provide valuable insights into diagnosis and epidemiology of protothecosis, as well as evolution and taxonomy of Prototheca and related organisms.

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“…We read with great interest the recent comprehensive review by McMullan et al concerning the potential pitfalls involved in diagnosis of algaemia due to Prototheca species presented as a report of an elderly cardiac transplant recipient who had a fatal case of protothecosis (1). We found the mention of prototheca species being associated with fungal coinfection to be of particular interest, and we share our recent experience with a similar patient for whom the diagnosis was made postmortem.…”

Section: Fatal Prototheca Wickerhamii Bloodstream Infection In a Cardmentioning

confidence: 83%

Fatal Prototheca wickerhamii Bloodstream Infection in a Cardiac Allograft Recipient

Nwanguma¹,

Cleveland²,

Baselski³

2011

J Clin Microbiol

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Prototheca wickerhamii Mimicking Yeast: a Cautionary Tale

Cited by 27 publications

References 7 publications

Prototheca miyajii sp. nov., isolated from a patient with systemic protothecosis

Prototheca miyajii sp. nov., isolated from a patient with systemic protothecosis

Ribosomal Internal Transcribed Spacer of Prototheca wickerhamii Has Characteristic Structure Useful for Identification and Genotyping

Fatal Prototheca wickerhamii Bloodstream Infection in a Cardiac Allograft Recipient

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