Trichosporon asteroides does not ferment glucose, maltose, sucrose or fructose, a feature common to all Trichosporon species. T. asteroides causes trichosporonosis, causing deep-seated, mucosa-associated, superficial, and systematic infections including blood. This species is one of the three most common Trichosporon species isolated in clinical settings. The fungus is sometimes recovered from specimens of blood, urine, and aspiration fluid, vaginal mucosa, male perigenital skin area, and catheters. The first record of this agent in a systemic infection involved a bloodstream infection. Main types of latent infection include fungemia, urinary tract infections, peritonitis, endocarditis, arthritis, esophagitis, meningitis, brain abscess, splenic abscess, and uterine infections. Allergies and systemic infections can also be caused by this fungus particularly in immunosuppressed people. Recently, T. asteroides was implicated in a case of kerion celsi, a rare, highly inflammatory scalp infection seen mainly in children.
