Trichosporon

Recent research, however, has shown that several Trichosporon species are involved in these infections.

Over 100 additional yeast species were referred to Trichosporon by later authors.

All species of Trichosporon are yeasts with no known teleomorphs (sexual states).

Trichosporonosis is a systemic disease associated with fungi in the genus Trichosporon.

Several Trichosporon species occur naturally as part of the microbiota of human skin.

Trichosporon species can also cause severe opportunistic infections (trichosporonosis) in immunocompromised individuals.

Proliferation of Trichosporon yeasts in the hair can lead to an unpleasant but non-serious condition known as white piedra.

Trichosporon spp.

We identified one isolate of C. parapsilosis, C. guilliermondii, and Trichosporon beigelli.

White piedra (or tinea blanca) is a mycosis of the hair caused by several species of fungi in the genus Trichosporon.

Yeasts, including Candida albicans, Rhodotorula rubra, Torulopsis and Trichosporon cutaneum, have been found living in between people's toes as part of their skin flora.

The species responsible include Trichosporon ovoides, T. inkin, T. asahii, T. mucoides, T. asteroides, and T. cutaneum.

Since it is not clear to which of these (or other Trichosporon species) the name T. beigelii should be applied, the name is now considered to be of uncertain application and hence obsolete.

Trichosporon species are distinguished microscopically by having yeast cells that germinate to produce hyaline hyphae that disarticulate at the septa, the hyphal compartments acting as arthroconidia (asexual propagules).

The French mycologist Vuillemin later realized it was a yeast and transferred it to the genus Trichosporon, considering it to be synonymous with Trichosporon ovoides.

Trichosporon beigelii was widely assumed to be the causative agent of white piedra in humans and other animals until the advent of DNA sequencing, when it became clear that more than one Trichosporon species could cause the infection.

Behrend called his new species T. ovoides, but subsequently Pleurococcus beigelii (later recombined as Trichosporon beigelii) was considered to be an earlier name for the same species and was accepted as the type of the genus Trichosporon.