Genotypic Analysis of a New Fungal Pathogen, Trichosporon faecale, Isolated from Japanese Subjects

The basidiomycetous yeast Trichosporon faecale is considered to be a non-pathogenic fungus; however, the microorganism has been isolated from clinical specimens in several countries. Trichosporon faecale is classified as type I, II, or III depending on the sequence of the intergenic spacer (IGS) region in its rRNA gene. In this study, 28 T. faecale strains obtained from Japanese subjects and environmental samples were found to be type I. In addition, T. faecale was detected by PCR in 32 scale samples from 146 Japanese healthy subjects, and all 32 samples were found to be type I. Our findings suggest a lack of intraspecific diversity among T. faecale samples originating from Japanese subjects and that T. faecale is part of the skin fungal microbiome.