Morphological, biochemical and molecular characterisation of the first Italian Candida africana isolate.

One atypical isolate of the pathogenic yeast Candida albicans was isolated from an Italian patient with vulvovaginitis. The strain, germ tube positive and chlamydospore-negative showed white-thin turquoise colonies on Candida ID 2 medium. The yeast was identified as Candida africana by using morphological and biochemical tests. On the basis of the molecular results obtained in this study as well as in other studies, C. africana cannot be yet considered as a new species of Candida. It is possible that C. africana represents a new variant of C. albicans like the well-known Candida stellatoidea. To our knowledge, this is the first isolation of C. africana in Italy.