The isolation of Aliescheria boydii shear, an etiologic agent of mycetomas, from soil.

Although a number of different fungi have been incriminated in the etiology of mycetomas (Madura foot), most have been inadequately described or are of questionable pathogenicity. One of the more clearly defined pathogens is the ascomycete, Alle8cheria boydii, whose imperfect form is Monotporium apio tperinum. The interrelationship of the two forms remained unsuspected for many years. In 1921, Boyd and Crutchfield (1) isolated from a human case of mycetoma an ascomycete that was considered by Shear (2) to be a new species of Allescheria and was given the name A. boydii. Prior to this, Tarozzi in 1909 (3) had described an imperfect fungus from a Sardinian case of mycetoma. This organism was named M. apiospermum by Saccardo in 1911 (4, 5). In 1944, Emmons (6) discovered that a subculture of a strain of M. apiosper mum, isolated by Shaw and Macgregor in 1935 (7), had begun to produce peri thecia similar to those described for A. boydii. This established conclusively the identity of the two. Such a relationship had been suspected previously, for Catanei and Goinard (8), in describing an imperfect fungus (undoubtedly M. apiosperinum), which had been isolated from a mycetoma, had stated: “Par ses caracteres morphologiques le champignon isoléappartient au type Allescheria Boydii Shear, 1921, quo a été trouvéen Amerique du Nord, dans un cas do mycetome du pied.― A. boydii infections have been reported from all continents of the world