Genetic variability of citrinin-producing Penicillium citrinum strains as occupational health hazards in northern Iran.

We evaluated the ability of randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) to type citrinin-producing Penicillium citrinum (P. citrinum) strains recovered from the forest's air in northern Iran. A total of 12 P. citrinum strains (P1-P12) were characterised by citrinin production and random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique. All the strains produced citrinin with levels ranging from 1.5 μg mL(-1) to 39.6 μg mL(-1) (average value: 12.68 μg mL(-1)). Of 11 primers tested, eight primers produced polymorphic amplification patterns. These primers generated a total of 105 reproducible RAPD bands, averaging to 13.1 bands per primer. Dendrogram for each primer indicating the distance of the strains to each other was constructed. RAPD results showed that the collected strains constituted four different clusters. The first cluster included two isolates (P1 and P3). The second cluster included seven isolates (P2, P4, P5, P6, P7, P8, and P10). The third and fourth clusters included one isolate (P9) and two isolates (P11 and P12), respectively. We concluded that RAPD analysis might be used in providing genotypic characters for toxigenic P. citrinum strains typing in epidemiological investigations and public health related risk assessment.