Wakefield A E, Peters S E, Banerji S, Bridge P D, Hall G S, Hawksworth D L, Guiver L A, Allen A G, Hopkin J M
Department of Paediatrics, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK.
Mol Microbiol. 1992 Jul;6(14):1903-11. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2958.1992.tb01363.x.
Pneumocystis carinii causes life-threatening pneumonia in T-lymphocyte-immunodeficient subjects in transplant and oncology units or with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Recent DNA homology studies show P. carinii to be a fungus. To investigate the biology and epidemiology of this parasite further, we elected to determine for it a more precise taxonomic assignment within the fungal kingdom. We screened a wide range of organisms representing the major orders of fungi using DNA amplification and subsequently sequenced a portion of the mitochondrial gene encoding the large subunit ribosomal RNA. Our data show that the opportunistic pulmonary pathogen P. carinii is closely related to the ustomycetous red yeast fungi, a group which includes organisms that are extensively distributed throughout the environment and which release many widely dispersed airborne spores.
