Among these fungi, Emergomyces africanus (formerly Emmonsia sp.
50 years of Emmonsia disease in humans: the dramatic emergence of a cluster of novel fungal pathogens.
capsulatum, Paracoccidioides spp., and Emmonsia; however, homologs are present in Coccidioides.
Desjardins et al., "The dynamic genome and transcriptome of the human fungal pathogen Blastomyces and close relative Emmonsia," PLoS Genetics, vol.
DNA sequences of the D1/D2 region of the large subunit and internal transcribed spacer region of the ribosomal RNA gene were compared with GenBank nBLAST database (https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi7PAGE_ TYPE=BlastSearch); sequence similarities of 100% and 99%, respectively, were demonstrated for Emmonsia helica strains (including UAMH 3398, UAMH 10539, and UAMH 10593; UAMH Centre for Global Microfungal Biodiversity, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada).
Another fatal case of Emmonsia infection was reported from California in a patient after an orthotopic liver transplant (4).
In Brazil, similar types of ocular infection were reported as adiaspiromycosis caused by nonbudding, thick-walled adiaconidia of the
Emmonsia spp.
To the Editor: Emmonsia spp., dimorphic fungi found worldwide, cause disease mainly among lower order mammals (1).
Automated laboratory identification systems initially misidentified the Emmonsia sp.
Paracoccidioides spp., Lacazia spp., and Emmonsia spp.
It is most related to the fungal order Onygenales, which includes Emmonsia spp.
Adiaspiromycosis, caused by the fungus
Emmonsia sp., was first identified in Brazil during pathologic examination of lung tissue in a patient with pneumonia who died unexpectedly during treatment (1).