Budding in Emmonsia Crescens

Increased temperature of incubation induces growth in vitro of the parasitic forms of some of the fungi which cause systemic mycoses in man. DeMonbreun observed this phenomenon when he described the growth of Histoplasma capsulatum Darling in vitro on various culture media and under differing conditions of incubation (5). DeMonbreun described also the development in vitro of the yeast form of Blastomyces dermatitids Gilchrist & Stokes when cultures were incubated at 37 C (6). Redaelli and Ciferri reported that the parasitic, multiple-budding form of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis (Splendore) Almeida can be maintained in vitro at 37 C (13). The effects of temperature and other factors upon the morphology of these and other fungal pathogens of man have been reviewed in many papers (3, 4, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15). The most notable features of Emmonsia crescens Emmons & Jellison as it grows in the lungs of animals are its great increase in size (up to 106 increase in volume of the inhaled conidia), the great thickness of the wall (up to 70 /A) and its failure to reproduce in mammalian tissue in any manner. The parasitic form of this fungus can be produced in vitro by incubation of the fungus at 37 C (8). Because of these striking characteristics of E. crescens Emmons and Jellison proposed the name "adiaspore" for the transformed conidium which grows to an enormous size (up to 700 , in diam) in the lung of a naturally or experimentally infected animal without reproducing (8). Because of these unusual features, the generic name proposed by Ciferri and Montemartini (2) is retained in this paper. Carmichael has referred Emmonsia parva (Emmons & Ashburn) Ciferri & Montemartini, E. crescens (which he designated as a variety of E. parva), Blastomyces dermatitidis, Aleurisma spp. and Geomyces spp. to the genus Chrysosporium Corda without attaching sufficient importance to the in vivo behavior of these fungi (1). Chrysosporium spp., as defined by