Trichosporon

Trichosporon is a genus of anamorphic fungi in the family Trichosporonaceae. All species of Trichosporon are yeasts with no known teleomorphs (sexual states). Most are typically isolated from soil, but several species occur as a natural part of the skin microbiota of humans and other animals. Proliferation of Trichosporon yeasts in the hair can lead to an unpleasant but non-serious condition known as white piedra. Trichosporon species can also cause severe opportunistic infections (trichosporonosis) in immunocompromised individuals.

==Taxonomy== The genus was first described by the German dermatologist Gustav Behrend in 1890, based on yeasts isolated from the hairs of a moustache where they were causing the condition known as "white piedra". Behrend called his new species Trichosporon ovoides. Friedrich Küchenmeister and Rabenhorst had, however, previously described a species in 1867 from the hairs of a wig. They thought that the organism was an alga and placed it in the genus Pleurococcus as Pleurococcus beigelii. The French mycologist Vuillemin later realized it was a yeast and transferred it to the genus Trichosporon, considering it to be an earlier name for Trichosporon ovoides.