Translation Elongation Factor 1-Α Gene As a Potential Taxonomic and Identification Marker in Dermatophytes Publisher Pubmed



Mirhendi H¹ ; Makimura K² ; De Hoog GS³ ; Rezaeimatehkolaei A⁴ ; Najafzadeh MJ⁵ ; Umeda Y² ; Ahmadi B¹ Show Affiliations
Source: Medical Mycology Published:2015

Abstract

Intra- and interspecies variations of the translation elongation factor 1-α (Tef - 1 α) 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. v i o - laceum, 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 - 1 α, a higher discriminatory power of Tef - 1 α 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. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The International Society for Human and Animal Mycology.