Biochemical characterization, Oxidative Stress and Antifungal Susceptibility in Acremonium sclerotigenum

Acremonium is a polyphyletic genus known as cephalosporium formerly widely spread in environment commonly found in soil, decaying vegetation, plant debris and decaying food. Acremonium sclerotigenum isolated from clinical samples of tinea infected patients from Punjab Pakistan. Goal of the study is to achieve biochemical characterization of the A.sclerotigenum and to analyze the effect of physiological stress and terbinafine susceptibility in test strain. A.sclerotigenum was analyzed for oxidative, osmotic stress adaptability by culture characteristics, protease and lipase qualitative and activity assays and antifungal terbinafine susceptibility testing for isolated Acremonium strain. Study revealed that A.sclerotigenum is not resistant to osmotic and oxidative stress. Level of extracellular proteolytic enzymes is low although lipase enzyme found to be active at a moderate level. A.sclerotigenum has very low MIC for terbinafine. A detailed research on the mechanism involving in anti-fungal resistance in A.sclerotigenum, is still to be explore.