DESCRIPTIONS OF MEDICAL FUNGI

Descriptions of Medical Fungi 17
Aspergillus felis Barrs, van Doorn, Varga & Samson
a
b
10 μm
b
10 μm
RG-2 organism.
Aspergillus felis (a) culture and (b) conidial head morphology.
Aspergillus fumigatus Fresenius
Morphological Description: On Czapek Dox agar, colonies are typically blue-green
with a suede-like surface consisting of a dense felt of conidiophores. Conidial heads
are typically columnar (up to 400 x 50 µm but often much shorter and smaller) and
uniseriate. Conidiophore stipes are short, smooth-walled and have conical-shaped
terminal vesicles which support a single row of phialides on the upper two thirds of
the vesicle. Conidia are produced in basipetal succession forming long chains and are
globose to subglobose (2.5-3.0 µm in diameter), green and finely roughened. Note:
This species is thermotolerant with a maximum growth temperature of 55 O C.
Key Features: Uniseriate and columnar conidial heads with the phialides limited to the
upper two thirds of the vesicle and curving to be roughly parallel to each other.
Molecular Identification: Sequence analysis of ITS is sufficient to identify to species
complex level only. For definitive identification analysis, β-tubulin, calmodulin and actin
genes is required (Samson et al. 2007; Balajee et al. 2005).