title: Geographically predominant genotypes of Aspergillus terreus species complex in Austria: s microsatellite typing study.
abstract: Aspergillus terreus species complex is recognized as a frequent agent of invasive aspergillosis in Tyrol. The reason for this specific epidemiological situation is unclear. Aspergillus terreus strains isolated from environmental and clinical sources were genotyped using a novel panel of short tandem repeats and were evaluated for virulence. Three major endemic genotypes collected from the Inn region and its side valleys were found to cause the majority of invasive A. terreus infections. All of these genotypes were of the same mating type, which suggests that a mating barrier is present between these geographically well-adapted strains which is found to persist for at least 11 years. The three major genotypes were prevalent in both human infections and the environment. No major differences in virulence were observed using Galleria mellonella as model. Our data suggest a specific environmental exposure being responsible for the high incidence of A. terreus infections in Innsbruck, the Inn valley and side valleys (Tyrol, Austria).
authors.affiliation: Division of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology, Austria. Electronic address: michaela.lackner@i-med.ac.at.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lackner
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetic Epidemiology, Austria.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Coassin
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetic Epidemiology, Austria.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haun
authors.affiliation: Division of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology, Austria.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Binder
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetic Epidemiology, Austria.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kronenberg
authors.affiliation: Division of Molecular Biology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Haas
authors.affiliation: Division of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology, Austria.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jank
authors.affiliation: Division of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology, Austria.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Maurer
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Canisius Wilhelmina Ziekenhuis, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Department of Medical Microbiology, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Meis
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Canisius Wilhelmina Ziekenhuis, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hagen
authors.affiliation: Division of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology, Austria.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lass-Flörl
mesh_terms: D001228:Aspergillosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D001230:Aspergillus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D001317:Austria / Q000453:epidemiology; D005838:Genotype; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D010802:Phylogeny; D014774:Virulence
keywords: Endemic; fragment length polymorphism; genotype; genotyping; mating types; virulence