[en] The clinical diagnosis of dermatophytosis and identification of dermatophytes face challenges due to reliance on culture-based methods. Rapid, cost-effective detection techniques for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have been developed for other microorganisms, but their application to dermatophytes is limited. This study explores using VOCs as diagnostic markers for dermatophytes. We compared VOC profiles across different dermatophyte taxa using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) and advanced analytical methods: gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOFMS). We analyzed 47 dermatophyte strains from 15 taxa grown on sheep wool, including clinically significant species. Additionally, we examined phylogenetic relationships among the strains to correlate genetic relatedness with metabolite production. Our results showed that GC×GC-TOFMS offered superior resolution but similar differentiation of VOC profiles compared to GC-MS. VOC spectra allowed reliable distinction of taxonomic units at the species level and below, however, these distinctions showed only a slight correlation with phylogenetic data. We identified pan-dermatophyte and species- or strain-specific VOC profiles, indicating their potential for rapid, non-invasive detection of dermatophyte infections, including epidemic strains. These patterns could enable future taxa-specific identification. Our study highlights the potential of VOCs as tools for dermatophyte taxonomy and diagnosis.
Disciplines :
Microbiology
Author, co-author :
Machová, Lenka; Laboratory of Fungal Genetics and Metabolism, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic ; Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
Gaida, Meriem ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Molecular Systems (MolSys)
Semerád, Jaroslav; Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
Kolařík, Miroslav; Laboratory of Fungal Genetics and Metabolism, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic. mkolarik@biomed.cas.cz
Švarcová, Michaela; Laboratory of Fungal Genetics and Metabolism, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic ; Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
Jašica, Andrej; Laboratory of Fungal Genetics and Metabolism, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic ; Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
Grasserová, Alena; Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic ; Institute for Environmental Studies, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Benátská 2, Prague 2, 12801, Czech Republic
Awokunle Hollá, Sandra; Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
Hubka, Vit; Laboratory of Fungal Genetics and Metabolism, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic ; Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
Cajthaml, Tomáš; Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic ; Institute for Environmental Studies, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Benátská 2, Prague 2, 12801, Czech Republic
Focant, Jean-François ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de chimie (sciences) > Chimie analytique, organique et biologique
Wennrich, Adéla ; Laboratory of Fungal Genetics and Metabolism, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic. cmokova@gmail.com
MZCR - Ministerstvo zdravotnictví České republiky Univerzita Karlova v Praze AVČR - Akademie Ved České Republiky
Funding text :
This study was supported by the project \u201CGrant Schemes at CU\u201D (reg. no. CZ.02.2.69/0.0/0.0/19_073/0016935) designated as project START/SCI092. The project was supported by the Czech Ministry of Health (grant NU21-05-00681), Czech Academy of Sciences Long-term Research Development Project RVO: 61388971 and Strategie AV21 project \u201CVP33 MycoLife\u2014the world of fungi\u201D of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The authors benefited from H2020-RISE project \u201CMycobiomics\u201D, No. 101008129. We acknowledge support from Talking microbes\u2014understanding microbial interactions within One Health framework (CZ.02.01.01/00/22_008/0004597). The authors thank LECO Corporation for the support with the GC\u00D7GC-TOFMS instrumentation. We thank D. Stubbe, S. Dobi\u00E1\u0161ov\u00E1, R. Dobi\u00E1\u0161, I. Kuklov\u00E1, P. Lyskov\u00E1, J. Dole\u017Ealov\u00E1, N. Mall\u00E1tov\u00E1, K. Mencl, H. Janou\u0161kovcov\u00E1, P. Hamal, R. Kano, A. Rezaei-Matehkolaei and L. L. Hoyer for kindly providing the strains for this study. We thank M. Chud\u00ED\u010Dkov\u00E1, L. Demont and S. Kajzrov\u00E1 for their valuable assistance in the laboratory. The research reported in this publication was part of the long-term goals of the ISHAM Onygenales working group.
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