Rare Alga Growth From Human Tissue Sample

The culture was negative, so what's all this green stuff? Open flesh wounds that have been exposed to lake water are at risk for bacterial infection, especially when soft-tissue samples show fishy white blood cell counts. But when the cultures reveal nada, how is it possible that the inflamed tissue, with no organism invaders present, could grow a nice, big, green algae colony? bright green colonies, which were later identified as Desmodesmus armatus -- a chlorophyll-containing alga. "When an organism grows abundantly, in the absence of other organisms that cause infection, it suggests that that organism observed is the cause of the patient's infection, yet we had no idea what we had grown," he said. "Algae in the genus Prototheca are known to cause human disease and those organisms have been relatively well characterized. However, Prototheca do not have chlorophyll and [to the] eye look something like ordinary colorless yeast when grown in culture." http://www.medpagetoday.com/Dermatology/GeneralDermatology/50348?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2015-03-07&utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyHeadlines&utm_source=ST&eun=g721819d0r&userid=721819&email=amydugan2@gmail.com&mu_id=5883165