Comparative evaluation of Borelli's lactritmel agar and Lowenstein-Jensen agar for conidiation in the Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Trichophyton rubrum complexes.

The characteristics of macroconidia are the key to the identification of dermatophytic fungi. In this study, we compared Lowenstein-Jensen agar (LJA) with Borelli's lactritmel agar (BLA) for the ability to induce macroconidia production in a collection of Trichophyton mentagrophytes (12) and Trichophyton rubrum (12) complexes and in Arthroderma isolates (4). We evaluated 28 strains from across the world, which were mainly obtained from the culture collection of the Centraalbureau voor Schimmelcultures, Fungal Biodiversity Centre, The Netherlands. All cultures were incubated at 26 °C on the bench, and conidia formation was investigated every 5 days, over a period of 30 days after inoculation. At 15 days, strains grown on BLA demonstrated better macroconidia production than those grown on LJA, 23 (82.1%) versus 16 (57.1%) isolates, respectively. Thus, the use of BLA, an inexpensive medium that can be prepared in the laboratory, should facilitate conidiation and the presumptive identification of dermatophytic fungi in mycology and clinical microbiology laboratories.