Phenotypic and genotypic identification of Candida spp. isolated from hospitalized patients.
As candidosis incidence continue to rise, quick laboratory identification of Candida species is becoming increasingly important for a growing population of patients at-risk. RAPD techniques were used on samples of Candida obtained from patients hospitalized at Santa Casa de Misericordia in Belo Horizonte (SCMBH) Brazil, from March 1998 to December 2000 and then compared with the results of phenotypic identification techniques. Two hundred and forty two yeasts were isolated and phenotypically identified as follows: Candida albicans (105), Candida tropicalis (62), Candida parapsilosis (28), Candida glabrata (19), Candida krusei (8), Candida guilliermondii (5) and Candida spp. (15). Samples from the three most frequent species isolated were selected randomly in order to compare the phenotypic and genotypic analyses. Genotypic analysis using RAPD primer M13 (F/R) displayed the best results of all test samples. There was both agreement and consistency between phenotypic and genotypic analysis using RAPD, demonstrating that is possible to apply this method for the identification of Candida species.
Departamento de Microbiologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Juliana
J
Campos de Pinho Resende
Glória Regina
GR
Franco
Carlos Augusto
CA
Rosa
Rosa Christine
RC
Hahn
Júnia Soares
JS
Hamdam
D002175:Candida / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005838:Genotype; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D010641:Phenotype; D019105:Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique