title: Genetic diversity of Pneumocystis jirovecii in colonized Cuban infants and toddlers.
abstract: Pneumocystis jirovecii is a leading cause of opportunistic infections among immunocompromised patients. The aim of this study was to determine the genetic diversity of P. jirovecii from colonized Cuban infants and toddlers by analysis of four genetic loci: mitochondrial large subunit (mtLSU) rRNA, cytochrome b (CYB), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and β-tubulin (β-tub). We determined the multilocus profiles based on concatenated genotype data (multilocus genotype; MLG) and nucleotide sequences (multilocus sequence analysis; MLSA) respectively, calculated the discriminatory power of each analysis, and investigated possible associations with demographic and clinical data. Sixteen of 51 PCR-positive nasopharyngeal swab specimens (years 2010-2013) with high P. jirovecii load were selected for downstream analysis. In mixed allelic profiles all genotypes/nucleotide sequence patterns were considered separately. All samples could be genotyped based on mtLSU, CYB and β-tub locus. However, the SOD locus could be successfully amplified in only 7/16 (44%) specimens. Eight different P. jirovecii MLGs were identified among the 16 cases and eight samples presented identical MLG (MLG 1). Seventeen MLSA profiles were distinguished. No statistical association between genotypes or MLGs and demographic or clinical data could be identified. For MLSA the higher discriminatory power (S=0.976) was observed. The combination of mtLSU, CYB and β-tub loci proved to be useful for molecular epidemiology studies of P. jirovecii. A total of 17 different MLSA profiles observed in 16 specimens indicated high genetic variability of P. jirovecii circulating in colonized Cuban infants and toddlers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bacteriology and Mycology, Institute of Tropical Medicine 'Pedro Kourí', Havana, Cuba. Electronic address: erno@ipk.sld.cu.
authors.forename: Ernesto X
authors.initials: EX
authors.lastname: Monroy-Vaca
authors.affiliation: Department of Bacteriology and Mycology, Institute of Tropical Medicine 'Pedro Kourí', Havana, Cuba. Electronic address: yaxsier@ipk.sld.cu.
authors.forename: Yaxsier
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: de Armas
authors.affiliation: Department of Bacteriology and Mycology, Institute of Tropical Medicine 'Pedro Kourí', Havana, Cuba. Electronic address: mtilnait@ipk.sld.cu.
authors.forename: María T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Illnait-Zaragozí
authors.affiliation: Department of Bacteriology and Mycology, Institute of Tropical Medicine 'Pedro Kourí', Havana, Cuba. Electronic address: raul.diaz@ipk.sld.cu.
authors.forename: Raúl
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Diaz
authors.affiliation: Department of Bacteriology and Mycology, Institute of Tropical Medicine 'Pedro Kourí', Havana, Cuba. Electronic address: gilda@ipk.sld.cu.
authors.forename: Gilda
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Toraño
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Hospital Juan Manuel Márquez, Havana, Cuba. Electronic address: daniavega@infomed.sld.cu.
authors.forename: Dania
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vega
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Hospital William Soler, Havana, Cuba. Electronic address: arlet@infomed.sld.cu.
authors.forename: Ileana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Alvarez-Lam
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Biomedicina de Sevilla and CIBER de Epidemiología y Salud Pública, Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío, Seville, Spain. Electronic address: sandube@cica.es.
authors.forename: Enrique J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Calderón
authors.affiliation: Unit of Mycology and Parasitology, Department of Microbiology and Infection Control, Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark. Electronic address: run@ssi.dk.
authors.forename: Christen R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Stensvold
mesh_terms: D003462:Cuba / Q000453:epidemiology; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D045363:Pneumocystis carinii / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D011020:Pneumonia, Pneumocystis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal
keywords: Colonization; Cuba; Genotypes; Infants; Pneumocystis; Toddlers