Introduction: Malassezia spp. is incapable of synthesising fatty acids. It takes external lipids as a nutritional source for survival by secreting various lipase enzymes, which degrade sebum to produce and uptake fatty acid. During this process, it produces certain extracellular enzymes; lipase, phospholipase, and protease which may act as virulence factors. We intend to determine the extracellular enzymatic action of Malassezia spp. isolated from individuals with pityriasis versicolor and healthy individuals.
Methodology: One hundred strains were obtained from healthy individuals and pityriasis versicolor (PV) patients each. The enzymatic activity was determined by phenotypic methods.
Results: Phospholipase production of Malassezia spp. was found to be high in PV patients (n = 85) as compared to healthy individuals (n = 38). Among these isolated, M. globosa showed the maximum production of phospholipase in both PV and healthy individuals (n = 49 and n = 12).
Conclusion: The extracellular enzymes produced by Malassezia spp. (lipase, protease, phospholipase, haemolysis) exhibit virulence factors which are involved in the pathogenicity of disease caused by Malassezia, but our findings showed no significant difference in isolates from healthy individuals and PV patients.
