Katarina M Rajković1, Nebojša T Milošević2, Suzana Otašević3, Sanja Jeremić4, Valentina Arsić Arsenijević5. 1. Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine University of Belgrade, Serbia; College of Applied Studies of Technics and Technology, Kruševac, Serbia. 2. Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Serbia. 3. Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine University of Niš, Serbia, Public Health Institute-Niš, Serbia. 4. Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, University of Belgrade, Serbia. 5. Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine University of Belgrade, Serbia. Electronic address: mikomedlab@yahoo.com.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Aspergillus fumigatus causes serious infections in humans, and its virulence correlates with hyphal growth, branching and formation of the filamentous mycelium. The filamentous mycelium is a complex structure inconvenient for quantity analysis. In this study, we monitored the branching of A. fumigatus filamentous mycelium in vitro at different points in time in order to assess the complexity degree and develop a dynamic model for the branching complexity. METHOD: We used fractal analysis of microscopic images (FAMI) to measure the fractal dimensions (D) of the branching complexity within 24 h of incubation. RESULTS: By photographing the filamentous mycelium dynamically and processing the images, the D variation curve of A. fumigatus complexity degree was obtained. We acquired the D variation curve which contained initial exponential period and stationary period of A. fumigatus branching. Further, the obtained data of D was modeled via the logistic model (LM) to develop a dynamic model of A. fumigatus branching for the prediction of the specific growth rate of branching value (0.23 h-1). CONCLUSIONS: Developed FAMI and LM models present a simple and non-destructive method of predicting the evolution of branching complexity of A. fumigatus. These models are useful as laboratory measurements for the prediction of hyphal and mycelium development, especially relevant to the pathogenesis study of aspergillosis, as well as pathogenesis of other diseases caused by moulds.
BACKGROUND:Aspergillus fumigatus causes serious infections in humans, and its virulence correlates with hyphal growth, branching and formation of the filamentous mycelium. The filamentous mycelium is a complex structure inconvenient for quantity analysis. In this study, we monitored the branching of A. fumigatus filamentous mycelium in vitro at different points in time in order to assess the complexity degree and develop a dynamic model for the branching complexity. METHOD: We used fractal analysis of microscopic images (FAMI) to measure the fractal dimensions (D) of the branching complexity within 24 h of incubation. RESULTS: By photographing the filamentous mycelium dynamically and processing the images, the D variation curve of A. fumigatus complexity degree was obtained. We acquired the D variation curve which contained initial exponential period and stationary period of A. fumigatus branching. Further, the obtained data of D was modeled via the logistic model (LM) to develop a dynamic model of A. fumigatus branching for the prediction of the specific growth rate of branching value (0.23 h-1). CONCLUSIONS: Developed FAMI and LM models present a simple and non-destructive method of predicting the evolution of branching complexity of A. fumigatus. These models are useful as laboratory measurements for the prediction of hyphal and mycelium development, especially relevant to the pathogenesis study of aspergillosis, as well as pathogenesis of other diseases caused by moulds.
Authors: Neda Bauman; Andjelija Ilić; Olivera Lijeskić; Aleksandra Uzelac; Ivana Klun; Jelena Srbljanović; Vladimir Ćirković; Branko Bobić; Tijana Štajner; Olgica Djurković-Djaković Journal: PLoS One Date: 2020-08-18 Impact factor: 3.240