Okungbowa Francisca I and Okungbowa Michael AO
Keywords: Candida, colony morphology, diversity, genitourinary specimens
Abstract: A study was undertaken to document the colony morphology (surface, shape, consistency, elevation and colour) in Candida strains. Samples were collected from symptomatic female patients in some cities in Nigeria. Microscopicallydetected (direct mount wet preparation) Candida – positive samples (n=585) were used. The samples made up of high vaginal swabs (83%), endocervical swabs (14%) and urine (3%) were plated on Sabouraud Glucose Agar and incubated at 370C for 48 hours. The surface and consistency types were determined by touching each colony with an inoculation loop (4mm). The cultures yielded 595 isolates of Candida, made up of seven species. Three colony surfaces were identified – Wet (W), Dry Shiny (DS) and Dry Powdery (DP) - with the DS having the highest distribution (65.1%) and DP, the least distribution (12.7%). Also, there were three distinguishable colony consistencies – Creamy (C), Dry Hard (DH), and Dry Grannular (DG) - with distribution of 87, 12 and 1%, respectively. Most of the species showed raised colonies. There were species - specific and intra- specific variations in surface and consistency. Statistically (p? 0.05), some of the colony features were species-dependent while others were not. The results provide an all-encompassing information on the colony morphological diversity in Candida species which is valuable in the understanding of the biology of Candida.
[View Complete Article]