Identification of Dermatophyte Species by PCR Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism in Ramallah region, Palestine

Abstract

Dermatophytes are a group of fungi that cause an infection called dermatophytosis. They are mainly classified into three anamorphic genera: Trichphyton, Microsporum and Epidermophyton. Sixty-five samples were collected during the period from the middle of January to the end of September of the year 2019. The clinical specimens (hair, nail and skin) were collected from 58 patients who were clinically diagnosed with dermatophytosis. Molecular identification was done by using the fungus-specific universal primers (ITS1 and ITS4) for the amplification of the ITS region in the rRNA gene. For species identification, BstN1 restriction enzyme was used for the digestion of the amplified ITS products to produce distinct band patterns. The distribution of dermatophytosis among the patients was 52.3.%, 41.5%, 3.1%, 1.5% and 1.5% for Tinea nail, Tinea capitis, Tinea corporis, Tinea pedis and Tinea imbricate, respectively. Nighnteen clinical isolates of dermatophytes showed positive culture. Trichophyton was the most common genus with 15 sample (78.9%), followed by Microsporum with 4 samples (21.1%) and no Epidermophyton were found. The most common species was T. rubrum (n=5, 26.3%), followed by T. verrucosum (n=3, 15.8%), then T. mentagrophytes, M. Canis, M. audouinii and T. schoenleinii with tow isolates for each (10.5%). The amplification of ITS regions was successful in certain samples by using the fungus-specific universal primers (ITS1 and ITS4) and PCR-RFLP technique