Identification of moulds in the diagnostic laboratory--an algorithm implementing molecular and phenotypic methods
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Updated: Jul 13, 2026

Isolation of Culturable Yeasts and Molds from Soils to Investigate Fungal Population Structure
Published on: May 27, 2022
Diana E Ciardo1, Gertrud Schär, Martin Altwegg
1Institut für Medizinische Mikrobiologie, Universität Zürich, 8006 Zürich, Switzerland. dciardo@immv.unizh.ch
Abstract:
Sequence analysis provides a valuable alternative to phenotypic identification of moulds, especially for isolates lacking characteristic morphology. In this comparative prospective study, isolates that could not be identified by standard phenotypic criteria within 5 days (n = 244) were subjected to sequence analysis and further in-depth phenotypic investigations. Comparison of sequence-based with extended phenotypic identification revealed that sequence analysis was more precise in 52.0% of the isolates; in 38.6% of the isolates, both methods gave concordant results. The construction of a database consisting of high-quality sequences allowed improvement of sequence-based identification. Based on these results, we propose a diagnostic algorithm for the effective use of both phenotypic and genetic procedures for identification of moulds in the diagnostic laboratory.
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