Introduction to Clinical Mycology

Culture Variation of Cryptococcus neoformans—Medium Dependent

January 2012

This is an example of something that is important for you to remember in the clinical laboratory. Not only are you faced with which media do I use for recovery of things but once you decide which ones you are going to use, you must become familiar with the morphology of the organisms on those particular media because they can look different depending on the medium.  This is the same specimen; same amount inoculated onto three different plates of media all containing different ingredients. The upper left is Sabouraud’s dextrose agar. This happens to be Cryptococcus neoformans on Sabouraud’s agar where it is white. The upper right hand side is Inhibitory mold agar; the colonies are kind of golden. And the bottom single plate is Brain heart infusion agar that contains blood enrichment and notice the colonies are more compact and a little bit off white. So that is pretty consistent for those medium. You need to not only know which media to use but know what they look like on those media to help you with the identification.

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• Introduction
• Introduction to Clinical Mycology
• General Terms Used in Clinical Mycology
• Fungi: Morphology of Molds
• Fungi: Morphology of Molds (Continued)
• Chlamydoconidium
• Hyphae with Arthroconidia
• Arthroconidia
• Fungi: Zygomycetes
• Nonseptate Hyphae
• Nonseptate Hyphae
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• Fungi: Ascomycetes
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• Fungi: Basidiomycetes
• Basidiomycetes
• Fungi: Morphology of Yeasts
• Basic Structures of Yeasts
• Blastoconidium (bud)
• Budding Yeast Cells
• Yeast Colonies
• Blastoconidia and Pseudohyphae
• Arthroconidia and Yeast Cells
• Microscopic Examination of Clinical Specimens: Detection of Fungi
• Calcofluor White
• Septate Hyphae in Specimen
• Microscopic Examination of Clinical Specimens: Detection of Fungi (Continued)
• Media for Recovery of Fungi from Clinical Specimens
• Culture Variation of Cryptococcus neoformans—Medium Dependent
• Introduction to Clinical Mycology
• Questions