Isolation of Fonsecaea pedrosoi from thorns of Mimosa pudica, a probable natural source of chromoblastomycosis

• Main Authors: Claudio Guedes Salgado, Jorge Pereira da Silva, José Antônio Picanço Diniz, Moisés Batista da Silva, Patrícia Fagundes da Costa, Claudio Teixeira, Ubirajara Imbiriba Salgado
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade de São Paulo (USP) 2004
• Subjects: Chromoblastomycosis; Fonsecaea pedrosoi; Mimosa pudica; Thorns; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/65afed27f68f49deb2084241cc1cf099

We report the isolation of Fonsecaea pedrosoi from thorns of the plant Mimosa pudica L. at the place of infection identified by one of our patients. Clinical diagnosis of chromoblastomycosis was established by direct microscopic examination and cultures from the patient's lesion. The same species was isolated from the patient and from the plant. Scanning electron microscopy of the surface of the thorns showed the characteristic conidial arrangement of F. pedrosoi. These data indicate that M. pudica could be a natural source of infection for the fungus F. pedrosoi.