DESCRIPTIONS OF MEDICAL FUNGI
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Descriptions of Medical Fungi 73<br />
Cunninghamella bertholletiae Stadel<br />
Synonymy: Cunninghamella elegans Lendner.<br />
Cunninghamella echinulata var. elegans (Lendner) Lunn & Shipton.<br />
The genus Cunninghamella is characterised by white to grey, rapidly growing colonies,<br />
producing erect, straight, branching sporangiophores. These sporangiophores end in<br />
globose or pyriform-shaped vesicles from which several one-celled, globose to ovoid,<br />
echinulate or smooth-walled sporangiola develop on swollen denticles. Chlamydospores<br />
and zygospores may also be present.<br />
Cunninghamella species are mainly soil fungi of the Mediterranean and subtropical<br />
zones; they are only rarely isolated in temperate regions. The genus now contains<br />
seven species with C. bertholletiae the only known species to cause disease in humans<br />
and animals, often in association with trauma and immunosuppression.<br />
RG-2 organism.<br />
Morphological Description: Colonies are very fast growing, white at first, but<br />
becoming dark grey and powdery with sporangiola development. Sporangiophores<br />
up to 20 μm wide, straight, with verticillate or solitary branches. Vesicles subglobose<br />
to pyriform, the terminal ones up to 40 µm and the lateral ones 10-30 µm in diameter.<br />
Sporangiola are globose (7-11 µm diameter), or ellipsoidal (9-13 x 6-10 μm), verrucose<br />
or short-echinulate, hyaline singly but brownish in mass. Temperature: optimum 25-<br />
30 O C, maximum up to 50 O C.<br />
Key Features: Mucorales, clinical isolates grow at 40 O C, one-celled, globose to ovoid,<br />
echinulate sporangiola borne on swollen terminal or lateral globose to clavate fertile<br />
vesicles.<br />
Molecular Identification: ITS sequencing is recommended (Yu et al. 2015).<br />
References: McGinnis (1980), Weitzman and Crist (1980), Weitzman (1984), Lunn<br />
and Shipton (1983), Domsch et al. (1980), Samson (1969), de Hoog et al. (2000,<br />
2015), Ellis (2005b), Zheng and Chen (2001).<br />
Antifungal Susceptibility: C. bertholletiae (Espinel-Ingroff et al. 2015a, includes<br />
Australian data); MIC µg/mL.<br />
No. 16<br />
AmB 32 1 1 5 16 8 1<br />
POSA 30 4 18 8<br />
ITRA 25 4 4 10 7
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