Lichtheimia corymbifera
| Lichtheimia corymbifera | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Fungi |
| Phylum: | Zygomycota |
| Class: | Zygomycetes |
| Order: | Mucorales |
| Family: | Mucoraceae |
| Genus: | Lichtheimia |
| Species: | L. corymbifera |
| Binomial name | |
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Lichtheimia corymbifera (Cohn) Vuill. (1903) |
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| Synonyms | |
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≡Mucor corymbifer Cohn ex. Lichtheim (1884) |
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≡Mucor corymbifer Cohn ex. Lichtheim (1884)
≡Absidia corymbifera (Cohn) Sacc. & Trotter
≡Mycocladus corymbifer (Cohn) Vánová (1991)
=L. hyalospora K. Hoffmann, G.Walther & K.Voigt (2009)
=L. sphaerocystis A. Alastruey-Izquierdo & G.Walther(2010)
=L. hongkongensis K.Y. Yuen (2010)
Lichtheimia corymbifera is a thermophilic fungus in the phylum Zygomycota. It normally lives as a saprotrophic mold, but can also be an opportunistic pathogen known to cause pulmonary, CNS, rhinocerebral, or cutaneous infections in animals and humans with impaired immunity.
Lichtheimia corymbifera was originally described as Mucor corymbifer in 1884 by Lichtheim from clinical isolations in Wrocław, Poland. At the time of the description, the species epithet, "corymbifer" was attributed to Cohn. In 1903, the fungus was transferred to the mucoralean genus Lichtheimia (honoring Lichtheim) by Jules Vuillemin as L. corymbifera. In 1912 the species was again transferred by Saccardo and Trotter to the genus Absidia as A. corymbifera where it remained for most of the 20th century. Alastruey-Izquierdo and colleagues in 1991 transferred the species to the genus Mycocladus, described originally by Beauverie in 1900. The type of Mycocladus has since been shown to be a co-culture with elements that appear to be conspecific with Absidia van Tieghem (1876). Thus the oldest available name for the fungus is Lichthemia corymbifera. Although conventionally treated in the family Mucoraceae, the erection of a new family to accommodate the genus Lichtheimia, the "Lichtheimiaceae", has been proposed.
Lichtheimia corymbifera produces small, dark spores inside pear-shaped (pyriform) sporangia. The species is characterized by a conically shaped columella and a short, pronounced projection, a funnel-shaped apophysis, on the top. The sporangiophores (sporangia-bearing stalks) are hyaline to slightly pigmented, sometimes branched, and arising from stolons in groups of three to seven. The zygospores are naked with equatorial rings, have opposed suspensors, and lack appendages. There is limited production of rhizoids, thus, it is often difficult to identify them without the assistance of a dissecting microscope.
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