User:Stedesivank/sandbox

Rhodotorula glutinis

 * Unicellular yeasts
 * Saprophytic
 * Easy to grow on most media, nutritionally non-fastidious
 * Produce coral, pink, red or orange colonies
 * Fast growing colonies
 * Colonies are soft, smooth, mucoid and moist in appearance
 * Appear round or oval budding cells under microscopy
 * Lack pseudohyphae and hyphae or rarely present
 * Unable to ferment carbohydrates
 * Produce urease enzyme
 * Fairly ubiquitous, found in; air, soil, water/lakes, ocean water, fruit juices and dairy products
 * May colonize plants, humans and other mammals
 * One of three species in the genus Rhodotorula, along with R. minuta and R. mucilaginosa, known to cause disease in humans
 * Second most common agent of Rhodotorula infection after R. mucilaginosa
 * Rhodotorula glutinis is not as prevalent in the environmnet as R. mucilaginosa
 * Opportunistic pathogen
 * Infections are usually nosocomial infections and highly associated with central venous catheters (CVC)
 * Causes fungemia and may cause sepsis, meningitis and other central nervous system infections and endocarditis have been reported
 * Susceptible to anti fungal drugs such as Amphotericin B and Flucytosine and triazole anti fungals like itraconazol, voriconazol & posaconazol
 * Known pathogenecity to humans is recent, 1960 first fatal reported case of meningitis caused by Rhodotorula, increasing number of cases in the past 30 years
 * Only species within Rhodotorula to have known teleomorphs; Rhodosporidium diobovatum, Rhodosporidium sphaerocarpum, and Rhodosporidium toruloides