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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, July 1999, p. 3175-3181, Vol. 65, No. 7
0099-2240/99/$04.00+0

Hemolysis, Toxicity, and Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA Analysis of Stachybotrys chartarum Strains

Stephen J. Vesper,1,* Dorr G. Dearborn,2 Iwona Yike,2 W. G. Sorenson,3 and Richard A. Haugland1

National Exposure Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, Ohio 452681; Department of Pediatrics, Case Western Reserve University, Rainbow Babies and Childrens Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio 441062; and Division of Respiratory Disease Studies, National Institutes of Occupational Safety and Health, Morgantown, West Virginia 265053

Received 19 January 1999/Accepted 6 April 1999

Stachybotrys chartarum is an indoor air, toxigenic fungus that has been associated with a number of human and veterinary health problems. Most notable among these has been a cluster of idiopathic pulmonary hemorrhage cases that were observed in the Cleveland, Ohio, area. In this study, 16 strains of S. chartarum isolated from case (n = 8) or control (n = 8) homes in Cleveland and 12 non-Cleveland strains from diverse geographic locations were analyzed for hemolytic activity, conidial toxicity, and randomly amplified polymorphic DNA banding patterns. In tests for hemolytic activity, strains were grown at 23°C on wet wallboard pieces for an 8-week test period. Conidia from these wallboard pieces were subcultured on sheep's blood agar once a week over this period and examined for growth and clearing of the medium at 37 or 23°C. Five of the Cleveland strains (all from case homes) showed hemolytic activity at 37°C throughout the 8-week test compared to 3 of the non-Cleveland strains. Five of the Cleveland strains, compared to two of the non-Cleveland strains, produced highly toxic conidia (>90 µg of T2 toxin equivalents per g [wet weight] of conidia) after 10 and 30 days of growth on wet wallboard. Only 3 of the 28 strains examined both were consistently hemolytic and produced highly toxic conidia. Each of these strains was isolated from a house in Cleveland where an infant had idiopathic pulmonary hemorrhage.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: U.S. EPA, 26 W. M. L. King Drive, M.L. 314, Cincinnati, OH 45268. Phone: (513) 569-7367. Fax: (513) 569-7117. E-mail: Vesper.Stephen{at}EPA.gov.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, July 1999, p. 3175-3181, Vol. 65, No. 7
0099-2240/99/$04.00+0


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