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Pathogenic Microbiology Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Pathogenic Microbiology

Blastomyces: Why Be Dimorphic?, Dennis J. Baumgardner May 2016

Blastomyces: Why Be Dimorphic?, Dennis J. Baumgardner

Dennis J. Baumgardner, MD

In introducing the infectious disease focus for this edition of the Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews, the author describes the unsolved mysteries surrounding the dimorphic fungus Blastomyces and the related pathogenesis of pulmonary blastomycosis.


Characterization Of The Ato Gene Family In Alternative Carbon Metabolism, Heather A. Danhof May 2016

Characterization Of The Ato Gene Family In Alternative Carbon Metabolism, Heather A. Danhof

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

As a commensal colonizer and opportunistic pathogen, Candida albicans is the most clinically important human associated fungus. Systemic infection carries an unacceptably high mortality rate of ~40% in the growing population of immunocompromised individuals. Macrophages are important innate immune cells that limit the niches in the human body in which C. albicans can persist through phagocytic removal. However, following phagocytosis C. albicans readily escapes from the immune cell by differentiating into filamentous hyphae, a process that should be inhibited in the normally acidic phagolysosome. We have shown that C. albicans induces germination by neutralizing the phagolysosome. To better understand this …


Blastomyces: Why Be Dimorphic?, Dennis J. Baumgardner Apr 2016

Blastomyces: Why Be Dimorphic?, Dennis J. Baumgardner

Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews

In introducing the infectious disease focus for this edition of the Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews, the author describes the unsolved mysteries surrounding the dimorphic fungus Blastomyces and the related pathogenesis of pulmonary blastomycosis.


Farnesol Signaling In Candida Albicans, Melanie L. Langford Apr 2010

Farnesol Signaling In Candida Albicans, Melanie L. Langford

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Candida albicans is a polymorphic fungus that causes a range of disease in humans, from mucosal infections to systemic disease. Its ability to cause disease is linked to conversion between yeast and filamentous forms of growth, and the first quorum-sensing molecule discovered in an eukaryote, farnesol, blocks this transition. In C. albicans, farnesol also kills mating-competent opaque cells, inhibits biofilm formation, protects the cells from oxidative stress, and can be a virulence factor or protective agent in disseminated and mucosal mouse models of infection, respectively. While much emphasis has been placed on determining its effect on C. albicans morphology, …


Methods Used By Dr. R. K. Benjamin, And Other Mycologists, To Isolate Zygomycetes, Gerald L. Benny Aug 2008

Methods Used By Dr. R. K. Benjamin, And Other Mycologists, To Isolate Zygomycetes, Gerald L. Benny

Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Floristic Botany

The methods that Dr. Richard K. Benjamin used to isolate Zygomycetes are discussed. These processes involved the following five steps: (1) collection, (2) plating, (3) isolation, (4) culture, and (5) maintenance. Additional methods, materials, and modifications used to isolate Zygomycetes are summarized. The author considers the flattening of the aerial hyphae onto the substrate of the faster- and higher-growing Mucorales for several consecutive days to be the critical step in isolating species of Coemansia, Piptocephalis, Syncephalis, and Dimargaritales. The methods used by other scholars to isolate, culture, and study many taxa in Zygomycetes also are discussed.