Abstract
Members of the genus Malassezia have rarely been associated with lagomorphs. During the course of an investigation of the lipophilic mycobiota of rabbit skin, two lipid-dependent isolates which could not be identified were recovered on Leeming and Notman agar medium from different animals. No growth of Malassezia yeasts was obtained either on Sabouraud's glucose agar or modified Dixon agar media. In this study, we describe a new taxon, Malassezia cuniculi sp. nov., including its morphological and physiological characteristics. The validation of this new species was supported by analysis of the D1/D2 regions of the 26S rRNA gene and the ITS-5.8S rRNA gene sequences. The results of these studies confirm the separation of this new species from the other species of the genus Malassezia, as well as the presence of Malassezia yeasts on lagomorphs.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Manel Lopez-Bejar from the Faculty of Veterinary of the UAB for kindly providing the animals and Carolina Gómez from the Veterinary Mycology Group of the UAB and Carme Requena from the Rabbit Production IRTA-TorreMarimon for her valuable technical assistance. This research was supported by the grant PREI 2008 from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.
This paper was first published online on Early Online on 10 June 2010.