Sporothrix Hektoen & C.F. Perkins, J. Exp. Med. 5: 80 (1901)
MycoBank number: MB 10046; Index Fungorum number: IF 10046; Facesoffungi number: FoF 10509; 80 morphological species (Species Fungorum 2020), 60 species with sequence data
Type species – Sporothrix schenckii Hektoen & C.F. Perkins
Notes –“Sporotrichosis”, a human disease caused by Sporothrix schenckii was reported by Benjamin Schenck in 1898. The disease agent was isolated from a specimen taken from cutaneous lesions of a patient (Hektoen & Perkins 1900). Sporothrix schenckii lives in soil, plants and many mammals (Barros et al. 2011, Chakrabarti et al. 2015). The S. schenckii species complex occurs worldwide, being most commonly found in Africa, America and Asia (Sizar & Talati 2019). de Beer et al. (2013b) reported Sporothrix schenckii/Ophiostoma stenoceras is a species complex in Ophiostomasensu lato, representing a distinct genus in Ophiostomatales. Based on phylogenetic analyses of four gene regions (LSU, ITS, tub2, calM), de Beer et al. (2016b) concluded that Sporothrix was distinct from Ophiostoma sensu stricto, and synonymised Sporotrichopsis and Dolichoascus under this genus. The sexual morph is characterized by globose ascomata with long necks and brown to black bases, 8-spored, evanescent globose to broadly clavate asci and hyaline, aseptate, lunate, allantoid, reniform ascospores. The asexual morph is dimorphic with a mycelial and a yeast phase (de Hoog 1974).
Species
Sporothrix schenckii