Resumen de Phenotypic and molecular characterization of clinical isolates of bipolaris, curvularia, exserohilum and pithomyces

Keith Da Cunha

• The generaBipolaris, Curvularia, Exserohilium and Pithomyceshave species clinically relevant.However, their identification is not easy. A total of 281 clinical isolates of Bipolaris,Curvularia,ExserohilumandPithomyceshave been studied by morphological and molecular methods. The in vitrosusceptibility studies of these genera were performed against the different antifungal drugs availables. Our studies revealed the presence of many species of Bipolaris, Curvularia and Pithomyces species can be isolated from human specimens; we proposed five new species ofCurvularia such as C. americana, C. chlamydospora, C. hominis, C. muehlenbeckiae and C. pseudolunata.Our phylogenetic analysis revealed that only E. rostratum should be considered as human opportunist. Evaluation of the in vitro antifungal susceptibility profile revealed that most of the antifungal drugs tested presented a good activity against the genera studied.