New Simple Media Substrates to Differentiate Candida dubliniensis from Candida albicans

Candida dubliniensis is a recently described as an important pathogenic species, which shares many phenotypic features with Candida albicans and therefore microbiological laboratories may be misidentified. The molecular methods can be exhausting and unavailable at many mycological laboratories, with restricted budgets such as those in developing countries. Therefore, the phenotypic techniques have been encouraged in the development of simple differential media with high specificity and sensitivity for the presumptive identification of these species. We examined the colony morphology and chlamydospore production of C. dubliniensis (28 isolates) and C. albicans (40 isolates). Isolates were cultured on several new proposed media such as Coriander (Coriandrum sativum L), Cumin (Cuminum cyminum), Soybean (Glycine max), lupin (Lupinus albus), flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum), pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus), Basil (Ocimum basilicum L), Peppermint (Mentha piperita) and Marjoram (Origanum majorana L), yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis), thyme (Thymus vulgaris), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), and sage (Salvia officinal) extract agar. In all of these media, over 80% of C. dubliniensis isolates showed rough colonies with peripheral hyphae fringes and abundant chlamydospores after 24 to 48 hours of incubation at 25？°C. In contrast, under the same conditions, all isolates of C. albicans (100%) showed smooth colonies without hyphae fringes or chlamydospores. In conclusion, this media subtracts offer a simple, rapid, and inexpensive screening media for the differentiation of C. albicans and C. dubliniensis