Species/Subspecies: Pythium insidiosum
Categories: Animal pathogen; human pathogen; plant pathogen
Etymology: Genus name: to cause rot.
Species epithet: stealthy
Significance:Pythios is a serious and life threatening disease, which can cause permanent damage and is difficult to cure.
  [Important]   
Geographic distribution: Tropical and subtropical as well as some temperate areas of America, Africa and Asia , where it occurs in moist and swampy areas with dense vegetation .
Taxonomy:
PhylumClassOrderFamilyGenus
OomycotaOomycetesPeronosporalesPythiaceaePythium
 Note that members of phylum Oomycota do not belong to the actual fungi (Kingdom: Fungi), but belong to a separate group (Kingdom: Chromista), which are also called water moulds (or water molds).
Macromorphology (smell):
Micromorphology: On solid culture media as well as in plants and in animal tissue, coenocytic hyphae with a diameter of 4-10 µm develop.
Reproduction:Producerar zoosporer med två flageller, som kan röra sig mot hud med sår eller lindriga skador (nötning) genom kemotaxi. Zoosporerna utsöndra ett klibbigt material (glykoprotein?), som gör att de kan fästa till ytor. Organismen måste passera en värdväxt, för att kunna producera zoosporer.
Spec. Char.: The cell wall of P. insidiosum consists of β-glucans and cellulose. Thus, cellulose instead of chitin, unlike fungi. The cellmembrane also lacks ergosterol in contrast to most fungi.
Vector: Some studies have shown that P. insidiosum can infect blood sucking insects, which then can transmit the disease to other mammals.
Reservoir: Stagnant water and sometimes soil. Animals that wade through stagnant waters in tropical or subtropical areas are especially prone to infection.
Disease/effect:
Genome Sequence:
ACC-No GenBankStrain/Isolate# of chromSize (Mbp)
GCA_001029375 Pi-s  47.9 

Mitochondrial DNA sequence:
ACC-No GenBankStrain/IsolateNumber of BPRef
NC_027966 Pi-S 54 989 # 64

18S rRNA Seq:
ACC-No GenBankStrain/IsolateNumber of NT
AF289981 ATCC 58643 1790 

ITS regions: -
Taxonomy/phylogeny: Note that this group of organisms does not belong to the kingdom Fungi but instead to the kingdom Chromista, and it is believed that they are closely related to brown algae and diatoms.
Comment:P. insidiosum is the only species within this genus that can infect mammals. Other species are often plant pathogens and cannot infect mammals.
Reference(s): No. 55
Updated:2021-06-23

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences