Temperature growth profiles for five fungi isolated from a teaching laboratory in West Virginia.

Abstract

Every year, fungal infections kill approximately 1.5 million people worldwide. About 90% of these invasive infections are caused by fungi from only four genera. High human body temperature serves as a growth barrier that prevents many fungal species from infecting human hosts. This study assessed the growth of five environmental fungal isolates at temperatures ranging from ambient room temperature to 39°C, above average human body temperature of 37°C. These five isolates were captured from the indoor air of a teaching laboratory at Shepherd University and identified to putative taxon through sequence of the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region in a previous study.  All five fungal isolates grew well at ambient temperature, but did not grow well at 38°C.  Specific patterns of growth between room temperature and 38°C were different for each isolate.  This research was supported by a NASA-WVSGC Undergraduate Research Fellowship (ER) and a NASA-WVSGC Research Enhancement Award (LSR).