title: Development of a new MLST scheme for differentiation of Fusarium solani Species Complex (FSSC) isolates.
abstract: Fungi belonging to the Fusarium solani Species Complex (FSSC) are well known plant pathogens. In addition to being the causative agent of some superficial infections, FSSC has recently emerged as a group of common opportunistic moulds, mainly in patients with haematological malignancies. Molecular typing methods are essential in order to better understand the epidemiology of such opportunistic agents with the final goal of preventing contamination. A three-locus typing scheme has thus been developed for FSSC; based on polymorphisms in the domains of the ITS, EF-1 alpha, and RPB2 genes. This method is now considered to be a useful reference for phylogenetic and taxonomic studies. In other significant clinical fungi (e.g., Candida sp., Cryptococcus neoformans, and Aspergillus fumigatus), genes coding for metabolic enzymes have been widely used and proven to be very informative for diagnosis and epidemiology. The contribution of these genes has never been evaluated for Fusarium sp. and more specifically for F. solani Species Complex. Here, we have evaluated the contribution of 25 genes for diagnosis and epidemiological purposes. We then report a new five-locus MLST scheme useful for diagnosis and typing of clinical FSSC isolates. The method has been validated on 51 epidemiologically unrelated strains of FSSC and presents a high power of discrimination calculated at 0.991.
authors.affiliation: Service de Parasitologie-Mycologie, Hôpitaux de Nancy, CHU Brabois, 11 allée du Morvan, 54511 Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France. a.debourgogne@chu-nancy.fr
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Debourgogne
authors.forename: Cécile
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gueidan
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hennequin
authors.forename: Nelly
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Contet-Audonneau
authors.forename: Sybren
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: de Hoog
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Machouart
mesh_terms: D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D005670:Fusarium / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005821:Genetic Techniques; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016533:Mycological Typing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D009181:Mycoses / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000382:microbiology*; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D010944:Plants / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D005656:Fungal Proteins