First report of the emerging pathogenic yeast Candida palmioleophila in commercially relevant fish from southeastern Brazil

Oliveira, Manoel Marques Evangelista; Moraes Lima, Viviane Felix; Costa, Gisela; De Oliveira Baptista, Barbara; Aud, Julia; Hauser-Davis, Rachel Ann

doi:10.3389/ffunb.2025.1545572

BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Fungal Biol.

Sec. Fungal Pathogenesis

Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/ffunb.2025.1545572

This article is part of the Research Topic Evolutionary adaptation in human-infecting fungi: Ecological traits and pathogenicity View all articles

First report of the emerging pathogenic yeast Candida palmioleophila in commercially relevant fish from southeastern Brazil

Provisionally accepted

Manoel Marques Evangelista Oliveira ^1*

Viviane Felix Moraes Lima ¹

Gisela Costa ¹

Barbara De Oliveira Baptista ¹

Julia Aud ¹

Rachel Ann Hauser-Davis ^2*

¹ Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
² Chemistry, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brazil

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

The emerging fungal pathogen Candida palmioleophila (C. palmioleophila) has been increasingly detected in environmental and animal samples, although studies in this regard are still scarce, especially in fisheries contextx. This study reports the first-time detection of C. palmioleophila in a commercially relevant fish species belonging to the Sciaenidae family (Cynoscion sp.), indicating its potential emergence as a pathogen in Brazil. We applied CHROMagar Candida Plus medium identification associated to Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) for the identification of C. palmioleophila isolates. Although only one fish specimen was shown to be contaminated by C. palmioleophila, this study provides the first evidence of this yeast circulating in commercially relevant fish species in Brazil, highlighting the potential risks associated with this emerging pathogen.

Keywords: yeast, Commercial fisheries, Scianidae, One Health, Public Health Surveillance

Received: 15 Dec 2024; Accepted: 10 Feb 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Oliveira, Moraes Lima, Costa, De Oliveira Baptista, Aud and Hauser-Davis. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Manoel Marques Evangelista Oliveira, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, 4365, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Rachel Ann Hauser-Davis, Chemistry, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brazil

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