Genotypic discrimination of <i>Aspergillus fumigatus</i> strain from related species within section fumigati

Abstract

The aim was to make an exact diagnosis of 20 strains using molecular biological methods which were isolated from the atmosphere of the inpatient rooms in the Oncology and other departments of the Ege University Medical Faculty Hospital, and identified as Aspergillus fumigatus through phenotypic tests, and to determine their antibiotic susceptibility patterns. It was confirmed that the 20 phenotypically-identified A. fumigatus strains belonged to the section Fumigati after they were tested by the ITS-PCR method. Their sequence analysis was performed and the results sent to the NCBI GenBank, and their accession numbers were obtained. For their exact diagnosis at the species level, the β-tub (β-tubulin) and rodA (RodletA) genes were examined with the multiplex PCR. Anti-fungal susceptibility of the 20 strains was determined according to the M38-A2 standards. As a result of ITS-PCR, it was confirmed that 19 of the 20 strains identified as A. fumigatus through the phenotypic methods belonged to the section Fumigati. However, after the detection of β-tub and rodA genes, all 20 strains were identified as A. fumigatus. Although the results of the phenotypic and molecular biological tests applied to filamentous fungi do not often overlap, in this study, the results obtained from the molecular analysis confirmed the results of the phenotypic tests. However, 1 of the 20 strains phenotypically-identified as A. fumigatus was identified as Penicillium spp. as a result of ITS-PCR and sequence analysis. On the other hand, the profile obtained from β-tub and rodA tests indicated that the strain was A. fumigatus. Based on these results, this strain is thought to belong to the Aspergilloides genus which has the features of both genera.