[Morphological and tissue-culture properties of Trichophyton equinum]

In the studies it was revealed that the content of the medium determines growth and appearance of T. equinum colony. On solid Sabouraud media two types of colonies were observed, however, colonies with characteristic radial folds and grooves in the paracentral zone and umbilical elevation in the centre dominated. As typical features of T. equinum one can accept dark red pigmentation of the reverse side of colony in the culture on solid Sabouraud medium with glucose and yellow and orange pigmentation on the same medium with no glucose. T. equinum strains which have lost the ability of creating characteristic dark red pigment regain that ability after a few passages on media with soil or after just one passage on laboratory animals. None of the studied T. equinum strains grew on medium with casamino acids free of vitamins, while they revealed rapid growth on the same medium with nicotinic acid. T. equinum strains which were used for the studies rapidly adopted to liquid Sabouraud medium and this made it possible to obtain sufficient quantity of mycelium for studies on ++pathogenicity and antigenic structure. On the basis of observations of growth on solid media and mass of mycelium gained on liquid media it was decided that the optimal temperature of incubation of T. equinum is 26-28 degrees C.