Identification of Cryptic Species of Four Candida Complexes in a Culture Collection.

Gustavo Fontecha,Bryan Ortiz,Kathy Montes,Celeste Galindo,Sharleen Braham

doi:10.3390/jof5040117

Gustavo Fontecha, Bryan Ortiz + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/jof5040117

Copy DOI

Abstract

Candida spp. are one of the most common causes of fungal infections worldwide. The taxonomy of Candida is controversial and has undergone recent changes due to novel genetically related species. Therefore, some complexes of cryptic species have been proposed. In clinical settings, the correct identification of Candida species is relevant since some species are associated with high resistance to antifungal drugs and increased virulence. This study aimed to identify the species of four Candida complexes (C. albicans, C. glabrata, C. parapsilosis, and C. haemulonii) by molecular methods. This is the first report of six cryptic Candida species in Honduras: C. dubliniensis, C. africana, C. duobushaemulonii, C. orthopsilosis, and C. metapsilosis, and it is also the first report of the allele hwp1-2 of C. albicans sensu stricto. It was not possible to demonstrate the existence of C. auris among the isolates of the C. haemulonii complex. We also propose a simple method based on PCR-RFLP for the discrimination of the multi-resistant pathogen C. auris within the C. haemulonii complex.

Highlights

Candida species are one of the most important pathogens in medical mycology [1], and the incidence of candidiasis in recent years seems to be on the rise [2,3]
All isolates were previously deposited in the yeast collection of the National University of Honduras and were identified as cryptic species of one of the four complexes: C. albicans (n = 66), C. glabrata (n = 24), C. parapsilosis (n = 15), and C. haemulonii (n = 3) (Table 1)
Phenotypic identification was based on the characteristics of the colony in chromogenic medium and the isolates were subsequently identified by PCR-RFLP by digesting the amplified fragment of the internal transcribed sequence (ITS) ribosomal region with MspI (Figure 3a)

Summary

Introduction

Candida species are one of the most important pathogens in medical mycology [1], and the incidence of candidiasis in recent years seems to be on the rise [2,3]. These microorganisms are a frequent cause of bloodstream [4] and vulvovaginal infections [5]. Candidiasis is mainly caused by four Candida species comprising C. albicans, C. glabrata, C. parapsilosis, and C. tropicalis [13,14]. A fourth complex of cryptic species includes C. haemulonii s.s., C. haemulonii var. A fourth complex of cryptic species includes C. haemulonii s.s., C. haemulonii var. vulnera, and C. duobushaemulonii [21]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion