7 replies to this topic

[Joe99]

Hi,

  I am new to the forum and am seeking help identifying some organisms.  I am assisting some of my professors in some research and not one of us is a mycologist.  I apologize if I misuse and terms but this is not my field of study so I am learning currently.  We are examining what began growing on our cadaver at school and have found several different things.  Initially about 5-6 months ago we found primarily what appears to be budding yeast with some septate hypea.  We took some more samples in the last month and have found several new things.  The cadaver has been treated with STOP.  We are now finding some gram positive and negative organisms as well as what we believe to be micro or macroconidia.  I was hoping for some help identifying these conidia, or any information would be appreciated.  

I have only found one clear image of one of these 'conidia' with a separation on the inside.  I will post the picture and hopefully get some help.  

Also it seems to me like these are rupturing and releasing the spores.  Is this a correct interpretation?  

I have seen some smaller round things that appear to contain spores as well, could these be from the larger conidia?  I do not have a good picture at the moment.

Thanks for any information.

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[Phil Geis]

joe:

I am a mycologist.  Suggest you isolate these fungi - it's not so easy to identify without colony morphology. That said - I think I see some Fusaria as well as what might be a dematiaceous fungus with alot of Gram negative bacteria.

[Joe99]

Thank you for the response.  I will talk with my instructors tomorrow about trying to isolate the fungi.  We thought that it may be some trichophyton that we were seeing.  I am hoping to know what bacteria we have tomorrow, we made up some citrate, urea, and I believe methylene red with different sugars to differentiate what we have there.

[pito]

Joe99, on 20 March 2011 - 09:16 AM, said:

Thank you for the response.  I will talk with my instructors tomorrow about trying to isolate the fungi.  We thought that it may be some trichophyton that we were seeing.  I am hoping to know what bacteria we have tomorrow, we made up some citrate, urea, and I believe methylene red with different sugars to differentiate what we have there.

Its always hard to determine what bacteria it is... Thats why we use DNA tests now.

Altough, you could indeed to some preliminary tests like you are going to do. Good luck with it.

@Phil Geis are you "the" Phil Geis from: Cosmetic Microbiology: A Practical Approach?

Edited by pito, 20 March 2011 - 09:38 AM.

[Joe99]

We considered contacting someone for some DNA testing, not sure why we haven't and at this point I know we are working on wrapping up the study.  Thank you for the input, maybe we will pursue this as well.

[Phil Geis]

Joe - I sure hope you established pure cultures - whatever means of identification you'll be using.

Pito - yup. that's me.

[Joe99]

Well, things are coming along, however I think my instructors had the dates wrong.  We were supposed to have an abstract submitted by april 4th for the ohio ASM meeting.  According to the website the actual deadline was march 4th and the meeting is sooner than we thought as well.  I see you are apparently vice president of the Ohio chapter so maybe you can confirm this for me (Phil).  I graduate in a few months so I may not be here for the next meeting.

Tomorrow we are going to talk about the results and hopefully will be ready to type things up.  The cultures should be pure, we plated several times to isolate and try different media.  Thanks for the help and any info about the meeting would be great.  I wouldn't mind going even if we do not get to present but I suppose that depends on a few things.

[Phil Geis]

Joe:

I sure hope you can make it.   Please look for me.