Candida metapsilosis

Candida metapsilosis is recognised as part of the Candida parapsilosis species complex (Tavanti et al., 2005).

It is phenotypically indistinguishable from C. parapsilosis, C. orthopsilosis and Lodderomyces elongisporusand is best identified by ITS sequencing or MALDI-ToF MS.

RG-2 organism.

Culture: 
Colonies (SDA) white to cream-coloured smooth, glabrous, yeast-like.

Microscopy: 
Ellipsoid, subglobose to fusiform budding blastoconidia, 4 x 3-6 µm, with some larger subglobose forms present.

India ink preparation: 
Negative - no capsules present.

Dalmau plate culture: 
Abundant, much branched pseudohyphae produced.

Physiological Tests: + Positive, - Negative, v Variable, w Weak, s Slow, nd No Data
Germ Tube - L-Sorbose + L-Arabinose + D-Glucitol +
Fermentation   Sucrose + D-Arabinose - 𝝰-M-D-Glucoside +
Glucose + Maltose + D-Ribose + D-Gluconate +
Galactose + Cellobiose - L-Rhamnose - DL-Lactate -
Sucrose + Trehalose + D-Glucosamime - myo-Inositol -
Maltose - Lactose - N-A-D-glucosamine + 2-K-D-Gluconate +
Lactose - Melibiose - Glycerol + D-Glucuronate -
Trehalose - Raffinose - Erythritol - Nitrate -
Assimilation   Melezitose + Ribitol + Urease -
Glucose + Soluble Starch v Galactitol - 0.1% Cycloheximide -
Galactose + D-Xylose + D-Mannitol + Growth at 37C +

Key features:
Candida metapsilosis cannot be distinguished morphologically from C. parapsilosis and C. orthopsilosis, but can be identified by ITS sequencing (Asadzadeh et al. 2009, Borman et al. 2009, Tavanti et al. 2005) and MALDI-TOF MS analysis.

Antifungal susceptibility: Candida metapsilosis (Australian national data); MIC µg/mL.
Antifungal No ≤0.016 0.03 0.06 0.125 0.25 0.5 1 2 4 8 16 32 ≥64
AMB 72     14 7 13 19 15 2 1       1
FLU 72         1 6 33 27 4       1
ISAV 13 9 1 3                    
VORI 72 21 34 12 5                  
POSA 72 12 15 25 18 1   1            
ITRA 42 5 6 9 11 10 1              
ANID 53     2 21 14 13 2 1          
MICA 53       9 21 22 1            
5FC 41     29 7 4 1              

References

  • Asadzadeh, M., Ahmad, S., Al-Sweih, N., et al. (2009) Rapid molecular differentiation and genotypic heterogeneity among Candida parapsilosis and Candida orthopsilosis strains isolated from clinical specimens in Kuwait. Journal of Medical Microbiology, 58, 745-752.
  • Borman, A.M., Linton, C.J. Oliver, D., et al. (2009) Pyrosequencing analysis of 20 nucleotides of internal transcribed spacer 2 discriminates Candida parapsilosis, Candida metapsilosis, and Candida orthopsilosis. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 47, 2307-2310.
  • Tavanti, A., Davidson, A.D., Gow, N.A., et al. (2005) Candida orthopsilosis and Candida metapsilosis spp. nov. to replace Candida parapsilosis groups II and III. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 43, 284-292.

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