DESCRIPTIONS OF MEDICAL FUNGI

Descriptions of Medical Fungi 151
Penicillium Link:Fries
For identification, isolates are usually inoculated at three points on Czapek Dox agar
and 2% Malt extract agar and incubated at 25 O C. Most species sporulate within 7 days.
Microscopic mounts are best made using a cellotape flag or a slide culture preparation
mounted in lactophenol cotton blue. A drop of alcohol is usually needed to remove
bubbles and excess conidia (Samson et al. 1995).
Molecular Identification: ITS and/or β-tubulin loci are recommended for identification
of Penicillium species (Visagie et al. 2014, Yilmaz et al. 2014).
Key Features: Hyphomycete, flask-shaped phialides arranged in groups from branched
metulae forming a penicillus.
References: Raper and Thom (1949), Pitt (1979), Domsch et al. (1980), McGinnis
(1980), Onions et al. (1981), Ramirez (1982), Samson et al. (1995, 2011b), de Hoog et
al. (2000, 2015), Visagie et al. (2014).
a
20 µm b
20 µm
(a) P. verrucosum var. cyclopium conidiophores showing two-stage branching.
(b) P. cheresanum simple conidiophore showing chains of single-celled conidia.
Antifungal Susceptibility: Penicillium sp. (Australian National data); MIC µg/mL.
No. 64
AmB 28 2 3 5 12 5 1
VORI 26 2 4 6 3 2 8 1
POSA 26 1 3 4 5 3 6 4
ITRA 27 3 4 1 6 8 1 4