title: Translation elongation factor 1-α gene as a potential taxonomic and identification marker in dermatophytes.
abstract: Intra- and interspecies variations of the translation elongation factor 1-α (Tef-1α) gene were evaluated as a new identification marker in a wide range of dermatophytes, which included 167 strains of 30 species. An optimized pan-dermatophyte primer pair was designed, and the target was sequenced. Consensus sequences were used for multiple alignment and phylogenetic tree analysis and the levels of intra- and interspecific nucleotide polymorphism were assessed. Between species, the analyzed part of the Tef-1α gene varied in length from 709 to 769 nucleotides. Significant numbers of species including Trichophyton rubrum, T. tonsurans, T. schoenleinii, T. concentricum, T. violaceum, Epidermophyton floccosum, Microsporum ferrugineum, M. canis, M. audouinii, T. equinum, T. eriotrephon, and T. erinacei were invariant in Tef-1α and had sufficient barcoding distance with neighboring species. Although overall consistency was found between ITS phylogeny as the current molecular marker of dermatophytes and Tef-1α, a higher discriminatory power of Tef-1α appeared particularly useful in some clades of closely related species such as the A. vanbreuseghemii, T. rubrum, A. benhamiae, and A. otae complexes. Nevertheless, we stress that a single gene can not specify species borderlines among dermatophytes and multiple lines of evidence based on a multilocus inquiry may ascertain an incontrovertible evaluation of kinship.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Medical Parasitology & Mycology, School of Public Health; National Institute of Health Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran mirhendi@tums.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Hossein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mirhendi
authors.affiliation: Teikyo University, Institute of Medical Mycology and Genome Research Center, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Makimura
authors.affiliation: CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: G Sybren
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: de Hoog
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Mycology, School of Medicine; Infectious and Tropical Diseases Research Center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rezaei-Matehkolaei
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology and Mycology, Ghaem Hospital, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Javad
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Najafzadeh
authors.affiliation: Teikyo University, Institute of Medical Mycology and Genome Research Center, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Umeda
authors.affiliation: Departments of Medical Parasitology & Mycology, School of Public Health; National Institute of Health Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Bahram
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ahmadi
mesh_terms: D003883:Arthrodermataceae / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020648:Peptide Elongation Factor 1 / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal; D020648:Peptide Elongation Factor 1
keywords: dermatophytes; identification marker; translation elongation factor 1-α