Where can I find Aspergillus flavus?
soils
Aspergillus flavus is found globally as a saprophyte in soils and causes disease on many important agriculture crops. Common hosts of the pathogen are cereal grains, legumes, and tree nuts. Specifically, A. flavus infection causes ear rot in corn and yellow mold in peanuts either before or after harvest.
How do you isolate Aspergillus flavus?
flavus isolates have been refined by transplanting a disc from each colony into a new PDA dish, and repeated several times. Before collection of the soil samples, the surface of the profile soil was cleaned. The soil samples were collected from 10-15 cm depth from the soil surface using disinfected spatula.
What toxin does Aspergillus flavus produce?
aflatoxins
Host range: Aspergillus flavus has a broad host range as an opportunistic pathogen/saprobe. It is an extremely common soil fungus. The major concern with this fungus in agriculture is that it produces highly carcinogenic toxins called aflatoxins which are a health hazard to animals.
How does Aspergillus flavus affect humans?
Growth of the fungus on a food source often leads to contamination with aflatoxin, a toxic and carcinogenic compound. Aspergillus flavus is also the second leading cause of aspergillosis in humans. Patients infected with A. flavus often have reduced or compromised immune systems.
What color is Aspergillus flavus?
yellow-green
Abstract. Aspergillus flavus is a mycotoxigenic fungus that possesses the ability to produce B aflatoxins. It can be readily distinguished morphologically by the production of a bright yellow-green conidial color, when cultured on malt extract agar or Czapek yeast extract agar.
What is the Colour of Aspergillus?
Aspergillus colonies are downy to powdery in texture. The surface color may vary depending on the species. The reverse is uncolored to pale yellow in most of the isolates. However, reverse color may be purple to olive in some strains of Aspergillus nidulans and orange to purple in Aspergillus versicolor (TABLE 1).
Is Penicillium septate or Nonseptate?
Common septate filamentous fungi are Aspergillus, Fusarium, Cephalosporium, Paecilomyces, and Penicillium species. The nonseptate filamentous fungi include the Mucor species.
What kind of host does Aspergillus flavus have?
Taxonomy: Aspergillus flavus Link (teleomorph unknown) kingdom Fungi, phyllum Ascomycota, order Eurotiales, class Eurotiomycetes, family Trichocomaceae, genus Aspergillus, species flavus. Host range: Aspergillus flavus has a broad host range as an opportunistic pathogen/saprobe.
What are the signs and symptoms of Aspergillus flavus?
Depending on the individual case, symptoms can include: In susceptible individuals, aspergillosis can cause arthritis [6], which can be manifested with fever, pain, swelling, joint tenderness and restricted range of motion. Antifungal agents can aid in treating this condition, although severe cases may call for surgery.
How big is a conidiophore of Aspergillus flavus?
Conidiophores are coarsely roughened, uncolored, up to 800 µm long x 15 – 20 µm wide, vesicles globose to subglobose (20 – 45 µm), metulae (8 – 10 x 5 – 7 µm) covering nearly the entire vesicle in biseriate species. Some isolates may remain uniseriate, producing only phialides (8 – 12 x 3 – 4 µm) covering the vesicle.
Which is better for Aspergillus microscopy or culture?
Microscopy has a higher yield than culture in invasive pulmonary aspergillosis from BAL samples, in some centres depending on the method used. No studies have compared methodologies for microscopy or fungal culture yield.