What is the structure of coccidioidomycosis?

Abstract. Coccidioides immitis is a unique fungal pathogen, characterized by a saprobic mycelial phase that gives rise to infectious arthroconidia which in host tissue, convert into a morphologically distinct spherule-endospore phase.

What shape is Coccidioides immitis?

Coccidioides immitis and Coccidioides posadasii are the causative agents of coccidioidomycosis. These are dimorphic ascomycetes that grow as filamentous molds and produce barrel-shaped arthroconidia in the environment and in culture.

Is Coccidioides multicellular?

As is common for fungi that infect humans and animals, species of Coccidioides are dimorphic in terms of their life cycle, growing saprobically as multicellular filaments on non-living organic matter and, upon entry into a host lung, growing pathogenically in a yeast-like spherule stage [1].

Is Coccidioides immitis unicellular or multicellular?

Coccidioides immitis is a soil dwelling fungus that generally lives in warm, arid climates. Spores may become airborne and, when inhaled by susceptible individuals, may develop into multicellular spherules in lung tissue.

Is Coccidioides a yeast?

Coccidioides is a dimorphic fungus, meaning that it assumes 2 different forms, yeast or mold, depending on the environment. In soil, Coccidioides grows as a mold (mycelium) with branching septate hyphae. During the rainy season, the mycelia grow rapidly, but they are also the least infectious form of the organism.

What is the full name of the organism that causes coccidioidomycosis?

Valley fever, also called coccidioidomycosis, is an infection caused by the fungus Coccidioides. The fungus is known to live in the soil in the southwestern United States and parts of Mexico and Central and South America. The fungus was also recently found in south-central Washington.

What type of microbe is Coccidioides immitis?

How does Coccidioides immitis reproduce?

Sexual reproduction by this organism has never been observed, and Coccidioides is known to reproduce asexually in the soil by the segmentation of hyphae to produce arthroconidia, the infectious propagules, and by the internal cleavage of host-borne spherules to produce endospores, which spread the infection.

Where is Coccidioides immitis found?

The fungi that cause valley fever — Coccidioides immitis or Coccidioides posadasii — live in the soil in parts of Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, California, Texas and Washington. It’s named after the San Joaquin Valley in California.

What type of organism is Coccidioides?

Coccidioides is a genus of dimorphic ascomycetes in the family Onygenaceae. Member species are the cause of coccidioidomycosis, also known as San Joaquin Valley fever, an infectious fungal disease largely confined to the Western Hemisphere and endemic in the Southwestern United States.

Is Coccidioides mold?

Coccidioides is a dimorphic fungus, meaning that it assumes 2 different forms, yeast or mold, depending on the environment. In soil, Coccidioides grows as a mold (mycelium) with branching septate hyphae.

What is the cell structure of Coccidioides immitis?

Cell structure and metabolism Cells of Coccidioides immitis in the hyphal stage have thin, structure-less walls and a cytoplasmic membrane. Many nuclei, elongated mitochondria with both transverse and longitudinal cristae, and lipid particles are present.

What are the different shapes of cocci?

While staphylococci or Neisseria cells, for example, are truly round-shaped, streptococci, lactococci or enterococci … The different shapes of cocci FEMS Microbiol Rev. 2008 Mar;32(2):345-60.doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6976.2007.00098.x. Epub 2008 Feb 4. Authors André Zapun 1 , Thierry Vernet, Mariana G Pinho

What type of fungi is Coccidioides?

Coccidioides is a dimorphic fungus that exists as a mold in the environment and as a spherule in vivo. It differs from the other dimorphic fungi in that the dimorphism is not regulated by temperature.

What does Coccidioides look like on dextrose agar?

Coccidioides immitis/posadasii colonies grow rapidly. The macroscopic morphology may be very variable. At 25 or 37°C and on Sabouraud dextrose agar, the colonies are moist, glabrous, membranous, and grayish initially, later producing white and cottony aerial mycelium.