ANTIGENIC STUDY OF MYCOSIS-INDUCING AGENTS BY COMPARATIVE ASSAY OF CULTURE M5DIA .I. HISTOPLASMA CAPSULATUM AND H. DUBOISII . RELATION TO H. FARCIMINOSUM, GYMNOASCUS DEMONBREUNII, BLASTOMYCES DERMATITIDIS AND PARACOCCIDIOIDES BRASILIENSIS

Comparative immunoelectrophoretic studies on antigenic structure of culture media of Histoplasma capsulatum, H. duboisii, H. farciminosum, Gymnoascus demonbeunii, Blastomyces dermatitidis and Paracoccidioides brasiliensis allowed the following comments: 1)H. capsulatum and G. demonbreunii share a few antigenic fractions. This appears as an immunological confirmation that the later species should not be considered as the sexual form of the former one. 2) Antigenic structures of H. capsulatum and H. duboisii are very closely related and somewhat identical at least from a qualitative point of view. 3) The three species of the genus Histoplasma and Blastomyces dermatitidis demonstrate important structural communities which concern two third of their antigenic mosaic. Their separation into two distinct genera based on morphological arguments is therefore not confirmed by immunological data. 4) Antigenic structure of P. brasiliensis shows a sufficient analogy with that of the previous species to suggest the belonging of these various fungi to phyletically related genera. The sexual form of B. dermatitidis being classified by its discoverer in the Gymnoascaceae, this leads to think that the various agents of deep mycoses under review, to which it should be convenient to add Coccidioides immitis belong to this family. This family, including also Dermatophytes would thus have in medical mycology a primordial importance. © 1969 Dr. W. Junk N.V.