A slow-growing cherry-red colored mold with numerous microconidia and no macroconidia was isolated from a sample of skin scrapings. What two things would you do to identify this organism

1. Growth on cornmeal agar

2. KOH prep

Explanation:

Cornmeal agar is a nutritional deficient media containing:

Corn meal 8g / zein 40 g / 100ml Agar 4g Distilled water 200 ml Large, highly refractory, thick walled.

KOH preparation (10 - 30%) used to destroy keratin, leaves fungal hyphae.

Can add a chitin-specific stain Calcofluor white fluorescent stain increases sensitivity

Hence the organism can easily be identified by these two tests.