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Phialemonium obovatum

• Gams and McGinnis first described the genus ''Phialemonium''.
• It was shown to an intermediary genus from between the ''Acremonium'' genus and ''Phialophora'' genus.
• Species of the ''Phialemonium'' genus are found throughout the environment.
• They can be found and isolated from sewage, soil, air and water.
• This species is saprophytic

Appearance and morphology 

• ''Phialemonium obovatum'' colonies initially start off as white or off-white in colour, when in culture. They then begin to turn pale and or produce green.
• Later, in the center of their colonies they begin producing pigments that are black in colour.
• Some scientists portray them to be moniliaceous fungi however, with the aid of special staining techniques it was demonstrated that they contain melanin in their cell walls.
• Melanin is also found in septa of hyphae
• Because they have pigments of melanin found within their cell walls that is the cause of this dark colour seen in the center of their colonies
• Furthermore since they do show melanin in their cell wall this fungi has been appropriately classified as a dematiaceous fungi .
• Dematiaceous fungi are fungi that are give off dark colours.
• Some research suggests that melanin has antioxidant properties which can serve as a virulence factor
• According to Gams and McGinnis, their texture is characterized as smooth with hyphal strands that radiate.
• Morphologically it is characterized as moist and floccose.
• It is a filamentous fungi
• They have obvate shaped conidia, or ovoid in shape which is narrow at their base
• When placed in agar sporulation was observed and conidia arise from the hyphae which was only the surfaces of agar. There have never been any conidia appearing from submerged areas.
• The vegetative hyphae have cylindrical philaides that grow from them, only at the agar surface .

Pathogenicity

• Phialemonium obovatum is a species that causes infections in the hosts in invades.
• Most cases of infections have been reported in humans.
• These infections include endocarditis, keratitis, peritonitis, and osteomyelitis.
• It targets host who have compromised or weak immune systems
• And for this reason it is being said that as numbers of immuno-compromised patients gets bigger, there is set to be an increase in the emergence of pathogenic fungi as well
• In particular it has been shown that dematiaceous fungi are becoming a greater cause of infections in people who receive transplants or who have weakened immune systems. And in particular Phialemonium species may develop into a more common pathogenic fungi
• Pathogenicity tests are usually done by see the temperatures some fungi can withstand, usually dematiaceous species are can withstand temperatures at 35°C which means they can be invasive to human tissue and likely spread.
• However, Phialemonium species have shown that they can continue to grow at a temperature of 40°C which means they have no problem being an invasive pathogenic fungi but also this ability gives them the potential to infect the central nervous system
• This is also another reason why this species can become a more widespread pathogenic fungi
• In 1985, Phialemonium obovatum was first seen to be a pathogenic fungal pathogen. It was labelled as opportunistic
• Its hyphae have the ability to invade and into blood vessels and tissue causing infection

Potential uses

• The aging process of wine in wooden barrels is a traditional process, however now adding wood chips such as oak may help produce flavour in wine. Researchers used oak chips that were inoculated with fungi including Phialemonium obovatum to see the effects they had on the compostion of wine.
• These treatments with fungi did show an increase in some of the components of wine. However, using this method does raise controversial issues due to toxicity of some fungi.