2 Comments

1. sa_2006 says:

   January 3, 2010 at 3:59 am

   Candida albicans is a pathogen
   The terms yeast and yeastlike are vernacular terms for unicellular fungal organisms that reproduce by budding. This is an inadequate definition, mainly because

   some yeasts reproduce by fission
   many yeasts can produce mycelium or pseudohyphae under some nutritional and environmental conditions,
   many filamentous fungi may exist in a unicellular yeast-like form that reproduce by budding
   The term "yeast" is of no taxonomic significance. It is useful only to describe a morphological form of a fungus. Most yeasts have affinities to Ascomycota, but a small percentage have affinities to Basidiomycota.

   In the strictest sense of the word there are no inherently pathogenic yeasts– those associated with human or animal disease are incapable of producing infection in the normal healthy individual. Some alteration of the host’s cellular defenses, physiology, or normal flora must take place before colonization, infection, and disease production can take place. Pathogenicity among yeasts is extremely variable– the most virulent is Candida albicans. There are also other pathogenic Candida species, as well as pathogenic species of Cryptococcus (especially C. neoformans), Torulopsis, Trichosporon, and Rhodotorula. Most of these have airborne spores or conidia and can be isolated as contaminants from skin, sputum, feces or other clinical specimens. This can lead to confusion about which organism is actually the pathogen. Only a few species in a few genera have regularly been associated with production of disease in humans or animals. In compromised host there are many others that can be opportunists
2. kael says:

   January 3, 2010 at 3:59 am

   a pathogen is something that causes disease (virus, bacteria, fungi, protazoa, ameoba)

   so both fungi and candida albicans would be correct–it would depend on how specific or non-specific the person asking wants the answer. i would say "the fungi Candida albicans."