DESCRIPTIONS OF MEDICAL FUNGI

Descriptions of Medical Fungi 171
Rhodotorula Harrison
Rhodotorula species are common environmental basidiomycetous yeasts, which can
be found in soil, ocean and lake water, fruit juice and milk, and on shower curtains
and toothbrushes. Today, the genus contains 46 species of which three have been
described as rare human pathogens: R. mucilaginosa (formerly known as R. rubra), R.
glutinis and R. minuta (Arendrup et al. 2014).
Rhodotorula mucilaginosa is a common airborne contaminant of skin, lungs, urine and
faeces. R. mucilaginosa is a known cause of fungal peritonitis in patients on continuous
ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD). This is usually due to saprophytic colonisation
of catheters or dialysis machinery and removal of the source of contamination usually
leads to clearing of the symptoms. This species accounts for the majority of the
infections (74–79%) followed by R. glutinis (7.7%) (Tuon and Costa 2008, Arendrup et
al. 2014).
Molecular Identification: In many clinical cases species identification requires ITS
and/or D1/D2 sequencing (Duboc de Almeida et al. 2008, Tuon and Costa 2008,
Arendrup et al. 2014).
MALDI-TOF MS: reliably identifies clinically relevant Rhodotorula spp.
References: McGinnis (1980), Barnett et al. (1983), Kreger-Van Rij (1984), Rippon
(1988), Kurtzman and Fell (1988), de Hoog et al. (2000, 2015), Spiliopoulou et al.
(2012), Duboc de Almeida et al. (2008), Tuon and Costa (2008), Arendrup et al. (2014).
Rhodotorula mucilaginosa culture.