Genotypic subgrouping of clinical isolates of Candida albicans and Candida dubliniensis by 25S intron analysis

Abstract

Therapeutic prophylaxis against candidal infections remains an area of controversy. Any diagnostic markers that reflect the potential of isolates to become invasive should be fully explored, so that more focused antifungal intervention should be targeted at these patients with these potential invasive markers. This study demonstrated that analysis of the transposable intron region in the 25S rRNA gene may be useful in helping to differentiate C. albicans from C. dubliniensis isolates, without the need for sequence analysis, which may not be readily available at primary diagnostic laboratories. However, employment of this genotypic assay is not a suitable locus to determine invasiveness and other more reliable markers of invasiveness should be sought.