Characterization of a novel gene for strain typing reveals substructuring of Aspergillus fumigatus across North America.

ABSTRACT: Fifty-five epidemiologically linked Aspergillus fumigatus isolates obtained from six nosocomial outbreaks of invasive aspergillosis were subtyped by sequencing the polymorphic region of the gene encoding a putative cell surface protein, Afu3g08990 (denoted as CSP). Comparative sequence analysis showed that genetic diversity was generated in the coding region of this gene by both tandem repeats and point mutations. Each unique sequence in an outbreak cluster was assigned an arbitrary number or CSP sequence type. The CSP typing method was able to identify "clonal" and genotypically distinct A. fumigatus isolates, and the results of this method were concordant with those of another discriminatory genotyping technique, the Afut1 restriction fragment length polymorphism typing method. The novel

SUBMITTER: Balajee SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1951133 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature