Rhodotorula mucilaginosa Species

Colonies on Sabouraud dextrose agar at 25°C are orange to pink to coral and are smooth to rugoid and dull to glistening.

On cornmeal following 72 hours incubation at 25°C, only globose yeast cells are produced (2.5-10 µm in diameter) [1270].

This isolate is urease positive, nitrate negative and has negative growth on cycloheximide or at 40°C. This isolate has been reported as perhaps the only isolate to cause human infection [1270]. Reports in the literature include aortic homograft endocarditis [1401] while FTL cultures have been recovered from blood. This species was incorrectly renamed to Rhodotorula rubra but this is not a valid species and the name reverted to R. mucilaginosa [220].

AMB	CAS	FLU	ITRA	VORI	KETO	POSA
0.125 µg/ml=1	8.0 µg/ml=7	>64 µg/ml=11	4.0 µg/ml=1	4.0 µg/ml=2	0.5 µg/ml=3	0.25 µg/ml=1
0.25 µg/ml=7	>8.0 µg/ml=1		8.0 µg/ml=5	8.0 µg/ml=6	1.0 µg/ml=5	0.5 µg/ml=1
0.5 µg/ml=4			>8.0 µg/ml=1	>8.0 µg/ml=1		2.0 µg/ml=1
1.0 µg/ml=1

Drug/N	AMB/13	CAS/8	FLU/11	ITRA/7	POSA/3	VORI/9	KETO/5
MIC Range	0.125-1.0	8.0->8.0	>64	4.0->8.0	0.25->2.0	4.0->8.0	0.5-1.0
MIC₅₀	0.25	*	>64	*		*	*

* Fungus Testing Laboratory unpublished data (CLSI M27-A2)

PubMed

GenBank

References

220. Bennett, J. E. 1990. Searching for the yeast connection [editorial; comment] [see comments]. N Engl J Med. 323:1766-7.

1270. Kurtzman, C. P., and J. W. Fell (ed.). 2000. The Yeasts. A Taxonomic Study. Elsevier Scientific B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

1401. Maeder, M., P. R. Vogt, G. Schaer, A. von Graevenitz, and H. F. Gunthard. 2003. Aortic homograft endocarditis caused by Rhodotorula mucilaginosa. Infection. 31:181-3.