Talaromyces marneffei

Abstract

Emerging Infectious Diseases • www.cdc.gov/eid • Vol. 27, No. 9, September 2021 Sources 1. Pitt JI. Penicillium and Talaromyces. In: Batt C. Patel P, editors. Encyclopedia of food microbiology. New York: Elsevier; 2014. p. 6–13. 2. Talaromycosis (formerly penicilliosis) [cited 2021 Jun 10]. https://www.cdc.gov/fungal/diseases/other/ talaromycosis.html 3. Tsang C-C, Lau SK, Woo PC. Sixty years from Segretain’s description: what have we learned and should learn about the basic mycology of Talaromyces marneffei? Mycopathologia. 2019;184:721–9. https://doi.org/ 10.1007/s11046-019-00395-y 4. Vanittanakom N, Cooper CR Jr, Fisher MC, Sirisanthana T. Penicillium marneffei infection and recent advances in the epidemiology and molecular biology aspects. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2006;19:95–110. https://doi.org/10.1128/ CMR.19.1.95-110.2006 T marneffei (formerly Penicillium marneffei) is a thermally dimorphic fungus that causes talaromycosis, which was previously called penicilliosis. The genus name Talaromyces is derived from the Greek words tálaros (basket) and múkēs (mushroom). Talaros aptly describes the ascocarp known as a gymnothecium (composed of fi ne woven hyphae) in which asci are formed. Asexual stages of Talaromyces species were previously known as the species Penicillium of the subgenus Biverticillium. Capponi and Sureau isolated the fungus at Institute Pasteur de Dalat in Vietnam in 1955 from Chinese bamboo rats (Rhizomys sinensis). In 1959, Gabriel Segretain, after an accidental fi nger prick with a needle containing the yeast cells, described the fungus as a new species, naming it Penicillium marneffei in honor of Hubert Marneffe (1901– 1970), the Director of the Institute in Indochina. Talaromycosis affects persons who live in or visit Southeast Asia, southern China, or northeastern India, and are immunocompromised because of HIV/AIDS, cancer, organ transplant, or adultonset immunodefi ciency syndrome. This disease occurs after inhalation of aerosolized fungal spores from the environment. Although the precise reservoir is unknown, T. marneffei is found in bamboo rats. Talaromyces marneff ei [t læ′ ɹɒ maɪ̯s ɪz mɑ:neɪ′] etymologia