Abstract

In this report, 500 clinical isolates of Candida albicans originated from patients’ body sites (vaginal, rectum, tongue and pharynx) and samples (stool, urine) in Yangzhou-located region were selected, screened and characterized. C. albicans DNA fragments spanning a potential transposable group I intron-containing region in 25S r DNA were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), cloned, sequenced and analyzed. Based on the DNA band, size and sequence data, they could be classified into three genotypes: genotype A (365 strains), genotype B (83 strains) and genotype C (52 strains). Sequence alignment analysis indicated that genotype B contained the conserved sequence element P, Q, R and S of group I intron, genotype C only harbored sequence element P and Q, while genotype A lacked these characteristic element sequences. 80 isolates covering the three genotypes were further selected to perform the in vitro antibiotics susceptibility test. The results indicated that strains of genotype A were much less susceptible to flucytosine than either strains of genotype B or genotype C. But no regularity was observed between the susceptibility of C. albicans isolates to azoles, and to amphotericin B. To our knowledge, this is the first report about the prevalence and antibiotics susceptibility of Chinese-basedC. albicans.

Key words: Candida albicans, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), genotyping, antifungal susceptibility.