Chrysosporium
genus of fungi
Chrysosporium is a genus of hyaline hyphomycetes fungi in the family Onygenaceae.
Chrysosporium colonies are moderately fast-growing, flat, white to tan to beige in color; they often have a powdery or granular surface texture. Hyaline, one-celled (ameroconidia) are produced directly on vegetative hyphae by non-specialized conidiogenous cells. Conidia are typically pyriform to clavate with truncate bases (6 to 7 by 3.5 to 4 um) and are formed either intercalary (arthroconidia), laterally (often on pedicels), or terminally.
Clinical significance
Species of Chrysosporium are occasionally isolated from skin and nail scrapings, especially from feet, but, because they are common soil saprotrophs, they are usually considered as contaminants. There are about 22 species of Chrysosporium, several are keratinophilic with some also being thermotolerant, and cultures may closely resemble some dermatophytes, especially Trichophyton mentagrophytes, and some strains may also resemble cultures of Histoplasma and Blastomyces
Chrysosporium has been identified as an emerging infectious disease, first in Canada affecting reptiles at around 1995. It infected eastern massasauga rattlesnakes (Sistrurus catenatus catenatus). By 2011, it had affected northern copperheads (Agkistrodon contortrix mokasen), timber rattlesnakes, black rat snakes, black racer snakes and eastern garter snakes in New Jersey.
Species
Chrysosporium alboluteolum (Sacc. & Marchal) Dominik (1968)
Chrysosporium alvearium F.Liu & L.Cai (2018)
Chrysosporium articulatum Scharapov (1978)
Chrysosporium barabicum Scharapov (1974)
Chrysosporium botryoides Skou (1992)
Chrysosporium carmichaelii Oorschot (1980)
Chrysosporium chiropterorum Beguin & Larcher (2005)
Chrysosporium christchurchicum Tripathi & Kushwaha (2005)
Chrysosporium clavisporum Y.W.Zhang, Y.F.Han & Z.Q.Liang (2017)
Chrysosporium crassitunicatum Kushwaha & S.C.Agarwal (1977)
Chrysosporium echinulatum Hubka, Mallátová, Čmoková & M.Kolařík (2016)
Chrysosporium europae Sigler, Guarro & Punsola (1986)
Chrysosporium fermentatitritici K.Matsush.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Chrysosporium” as genus of fungi. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as genus of fungi. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5114948. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1995, 2011, 1968 and 2018.
Current terminology should not be projected backward without checking the classification used when the underlying evidence was created. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Chrysosporium” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.