Species of Metarhizium anisopliae complex implicated in human infections: retrospective sequencing study

Fungi belonging to the Metarhizium anisopliae complex comprise ubiquitous arthropod pathogenic moulds used as mycopesticides. Rare cases of human infections due to M. anisopliae have been reported. We hypothesize misidentifications of fungal strains implicated in these cases or used in mycopesticide...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Clinical microbiology and infection 2017-12, Vol.23 (12), p.994-999
Main Authors: Nourrisson, C., Dupont, D., Lavergne, R.-A., Dorin, J., Forouzanfar, F., Denis, J., Weeks, K., Joubert, R., Chiambaretta, F., Bourcier, T., Roux, S., Sénéchal, A., Benaïm, G., Wallon, M., Candolfi, E., Letscher-Bru, V., Poirier, P., Sabou, M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Antifungal Agents - therapeutic use
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology
Child
Child, Preschool
Diagnostic Errors
Elongation factor 1-α
Female
Genes, Fungal - genetics
Humans
Internal transcribed spacer
Life Sciences
Male
Metarhizium
Metarhizium - genetics
Metarhizium anisopliae
Metarhizium robertsii
Microbial Sensitivity Tests
Microbiology and Parasitology
Middle Aged
Mycology
Mycoses - diagnosis
Mycoses - drug therapy
Mycoses - microbiology
Ocular fungal infection
Phylogeny
Retrospective Studies
Sequence Analysis, DNA
Sequencing
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Summary:Fungi belonging to the Metarhizium anisopliae complex comprise ubiquitous arthropod pathogenic moulds used as mycopesticides. Rare cases of human infections due to M. anisopliae have been reported. We hypothesize misidentifications of fungal strains implicated in these cases or used in mycopesticides. A review of the literature was conducted to identify previously published cases. We collected some of these previous described strains and reported new cases, and a French mycopesticide containing M. anisopliae. All identifications were performed based on elongation factor-1α gene sequencing. We report eight new cases of Metarhizium infection in humans (three from France and five from Australia). The strains isolated from these cases, and three others from already published cases and reported as M. anisopliae, were molecularly identified based on elongation factor-1α (Ef1-α) gene sequencing as follows: Metarhizium robertsii (six), Metarhizium guizhouense (three), Metarhizium brunneum (one) and Metarhizium pingshaense (one). In this study, we report new human cases of Metarhizium infections, and, based on Ef-1α gene sequencing, we demonstrate the misidentification of species in case reports. We also correct the species identification of a strain reported as M. anisopliae used in a commercially available mycopesticide. According to our results, none of the strains from the human infection reports reviewed belongs to the species M. anisopliae.
ISSN:1198-743X
1469-0691
DOI:10.1016/j.cmi.2017.05.001