This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Balajee, S. A.
Right arrow Articles by Marr, K. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Balajee, S. A.
Right arrow Articles by Marr, K. A.

 Previous Article

Eukaryotic Cell, March 2005, p. 625-632, Vol. 4, No. 3
1535-9778/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/EC.4.3.625-632.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Aspergillus lentulus sp. nov., a New Sibling Species of A. fumigatus

S. Arunmozhi Balajee,1 Jennifer L. Gribskov,1 Edward Hanley,1 David Nickle,2 and Kieren A. Marr1,3*

Program in Infectious Diseases, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center,1 Department of Microbiology,2 Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington3

Received 29 November 2004/ Accepted 18 January 2005

In a prior study, we identified seven clinical isolates of an Aspergillus sp. that were slow to sporulate in multiple media and demonstrated decreased in vitro susceptibilities to multiple antifungals, including amphotericin B, itraconazole, voriconazole, and caspofungin. These isolates were initially considered to be variants of Aspergillus fumigatus because of differences in mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences and unique randomly amplified polymorphic DNA PCR patterns (S. A. Balajee, M. Weaver, A. Imhof, J. Gribskov, and K. A. Marr, Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 48: 1197-1203, 2004). The present study was performed to clarify the taxonomic status of these organisms by phylogenetic analyses based on multilocus sequence typing of five genes (the ß-tubulin gene, the rodlet A gene, the salt-responsive gene, the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene, and the internal transcribed spacer regions). Results revealed that four of the seven variant isolates clustered together in a clade very distant from A. fumigatus and distinct from other members of the A. fumigatus group. This new clade, consisting of four members, was monophyletic with strong bootstrap support when the protein-encoding regions were analyzed, indicating a new species status under the phylogenetic species concept. Phenotype studies revealed that the variant isolate has smaller conidial heads with diminutive vesicles compared to A. fumigatus and is not able to survive at 48°C. Our findings suggest the presence of a previously unrecognized, potentially drug-resistant Aspergillus species that we designate A. lentulus.


* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Program in Infectious Diseases, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Ave. N., D3-100, Seattle, WA 98109. Phone: (206) 667-6702. Fax: (206) 667-4411. E-mail: kmarr{at}fhcrc.org.


Eukaryotic Cell, March 2005, p. 625-632, Vol. 4, No. 3
1535-9778/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/EC.4.3.625-632.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.




This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Balajee, S. A., Kano, R., Baddley, J. W., Moser, S. A., Marr, K. A., Alexander, B. D., Andes, D., Kontoyiannis, D. P., Perrone, G., Peterson, S., Brandt, M. E., Pappas, P. G., Chiller, T. (2009). Molecular Identification of Aspergillus Species Collected for the Transplant-Associated Infection Surveillance Network. J. Clin. Microbiol. 47: 3138-3141 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Klich, M. A (2009). Health effects of Aspergillus in food and air. Toxicol Ind Health 25: 657-667 [Abstract]  
  • Staab, J. F., Balajee, S. A., Marr, K. A. (2009). Aspergillus Section Fumigati Typing by PCR-Restriction Fragment Polymorphism. J. Clin. Microbiol. 47: 2079-2083 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Balajee, S. A., Baddley, J. W., Peterson, S. W., Nickle, D., Varga, J., Boey, A., Lass-Florl, C., Frisvad, J. C., Samson, R. A., and the ISHAM Working Group on A. terreus, (2009). Aspergillus alabamensis, a New Clinically Relevant Species in the Section Terrei. Eukaryot Cell 8: 713-722 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Balajee, S. A., Borman, A. M., Brandt, M. E., Cano, J., Cuenca-Estrella, M., Dannaoui, E., Guarro, J., Haase, G., Kibbler, C. C., Meyer, W., O'Donnell, K., Petti, C. A., Rodriguez-Tudela, J. L., Sutton, D., Velegraki, A., Wickes, B. L. (2009). Sequence-Based Identification of Aspergillus, Fusarium, and Mucorales Species in the Clinical Mycology Laboratory: Where Are We and Where Should We Go from Here?. J. Clin. Microbiol. 47: 877-884 [Full Text]  
  • Etienne, K. A., Kano, R., Balajee, S. A. (2009). Development and Validation of a Microsphere-Based Luminex Assay for Rapid Identification of Clinically Relevant Aspergilli. J. Clin. Microbiol. 47: 1096-1100 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Montenegro, G., Sanchez Puch, S., Jewtuchowicz, V. M., Pinoni, M. V., Relloso, S., Temporitti, E., Iovannitti, C. A., Mujica, M. T. (2009). Phenotypic and genotypic characterization of Aspergillus lentulus and Aspergillus fumigatus isolates in a patient with probable invasive aspergillosis. J Med Microbiol 58: 391-395 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Alcazar-Fuoli, L., Mellado, E., Alastruey-Izquierdo, A., Cuenca-Estrella, M., Rodriguez-Tudela, J. L. (2008). Aspergillus Section Fumigati: Antifungal Susceptibility Patterns and Sequence-Based Identification. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 52: 1244-1251 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Peterson, S. W. (2008). Phylogenetic analysis of Aspergillus species using DNA sequences from four loci. Mycologia 100: 205-226 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Borman, A. M., Linton, C. J., Miles, S.-J., Johnson, E. M. (2008). Molecular identification of pathogenic fungi. J Antimicrob Chemother 61: i7-i12 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Woo, P. C. Y., Lau, C. C. Y., Chong, K. T. K., Tse, H., Tsang, D. N. C., Lee, R. A., Tse, C. W. S., Que, T.-l., Chung, L. M. W., Ngan, A. H. Y., Hui, W.-t., Wong, S. S. Y., Lau, S. K. P., Yuen, K.-y. (2007). MP1 Homologue-Based Multilocus Sequence System for Typing the Pathogenic Fungus Penicillium marneffei: a Novel Approach Using Lineage-Specific Genes. J. Clin. Microbiol. 45: 3647-3654 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Zeng, X., Kong, F., Halliday, C., Chen, S., Lau, A., Playford, G., Sorrell, T. C. (2007). Reverse Line Blot Hybridization Assay for Identification of Medically Important Fungi from Culture and Clinical Specimens. J. Clin. Microbiol. 45: 2872-2880 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Balajee, S. A., Lindsley, M. D., Iqbal, N., Ito, J., Pappas, P. G., Brandt, M. E. (2007). Nonsporulating Clinical Isolate Identified as Petromyces alliaceus (Anamorph Aspergillus alliaceus) by Morphological and Sequence-Based Methods. J. Clin. Microbiol. 45: 2701-2703 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Balajee, S. A., Tay, S. T., Lasker, B. A., Hurst, S. F., Rooney, A. P. (2007). Characterization of a Novel Gene for Strain Typing Reveals Substructuring of Aspergillus fumigatus across North America. Eukaryot Cell 6: 1392-1399 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Bain, J. M., Tavanti, A., Davidson, A. D., Jacobsen, M. D., Shaw, D., Gow, N. A. R., Odds, F. C. (2007). Multilocus Sequence Typing of the Pathogenic Fungus Aspergillus fumigatus. J. Clin. Microbiol. 45: 1469-1477 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Pasqualotto, A. C., Denning, D. W., Anderson, M. J. (2007). A Cautionary Tale: Lack of Consistency in Allele Sizes between Two Laboratories for a Published Multilocus Microsatellite Typing System. J. Clin. Microbiol. 45: 522-528 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Antachopoulos, C., Meletiadis, J., Sein, T., Roilides, E., Walsh, T. J. (2007). Use of high inoculum for early metabolic signalling and rapid susceptibility testing of Aspergillus species. J Antimicrob Chemother 59: 230-237 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Geiser, D.M., Klich, M.A., Frisvad, J.C., Peterson, S.W., Varga, J., Samson, R.A. (2007). The current status of species recognition and identification in Aspergillus. SIM 59: 1-10 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Balajee, S.A., Houbraken, J., Verweij, P.E., Hong, S-B., Yaghuchi, T., Varga, J., Samson, R.A. (2007). Aspergillus species identification in the clinical setting. SIM 59: 39-46 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Samson, R.A., Hong, S., Peterson, S.W., Frisvad, J.C., Varga, J. (2007). Polyphasic taxonomy of Aspergillus section Fumigati and its teleomorph Neosartorya. SIM 59: 147-203 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Gilgado, F., Serena, C., Cano, J., Gene, J., Guarro, J. (2006). Antifungal Susceptibilities of the Species of the Pseudallescheria boydii Complex. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 50: 4211-4213 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Balajee, S. A., Nickle, D., Varga, J., Marr, K. A. (2006). Molecular Studies Reveal Frequent Misidentification of Aspergillus fumigatus by Morphotyping.. Eukaryot Cell 5: 1705-1712 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Balajee, S. A., Gribskov, J., Brandt, M., Ito, J., Fothergill, A., Marr, K. A. (2005). Mistaken Identity: Neosartorya pseudofischeri and Its Anamorph Masquerading as Aspergillus fumigatus. J. Clin. Microbiol. 43: 5996-5999 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Hong, S.-B., Go, S.-J., Shin, H.-D., Frisvad, J. C., Samson, R. A. (2005). Polyphasic taxonomy of Aspergillus fumigatus and related species.. Mycologia 97: 1316-1329 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • MacCallum, D. M., Whyte, J. A., Odds, F. C. (2005). Efficacy of Caspofungin and Voriconazole Combinations in Experimental Aspergillosis. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 49: 3697-3701 [Abstract] [Full Text]