Lim Wilson, Eadie Kimberly, Horst-Kreft Deborah, Ahmed Sarah Abdalla, Fahal Ahmed H, van de Sande Wendy W J
Erasmus MC Department of Medical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Med Mycol. 2019 Jun 1;57(4):434-440. doi: 10.1093/mmy/myy055.
The neglected tropical disease mycetoma is a chronic granulomatous inflammatory and infectious disease affecting various body parts. The most common causative agent is the fungus Madurella mycetomatis. In order to study the genetic diversity of this fungus and to monitor any potential outbreaks, a good typing method that can be used in endemic settings is needed. Previous typing methods developed were not discriminative and not easy to perform in resource-limited laboratories. Variable-Number-Tandem-Repeat (VNTR) typing overcomes these difficulties and further enables interlaboratory data comparison. Therefore, in this study we developed a VNTR method for typing M. mycetomatis. Six tandem-repeats were identified in the genome of M. mycetomatis isolate MM55 using an online tandem repeats software. The variation in these repeats was determined by PCR and gel-electrophoresis on DNA obtained from 81 M. mycetomatis isolates obtained from patients. These patients originated from Sudan, Mali, Peru, and India. The 81 isolates were divided into 14 genotypes which separated into two main clusters with seven and five subdivisions, respectively. VNTR typing confirms the heterogeneity of M. mycetomatis strains and can be used to study the epidemiology of M. mycetomatis. The results presented in this article are made fully available to the scientific community on request from the Eumycetoma Working Group. We hope that this open resource approach will bridge scientific community working with mycetoma from all around the world and lead to a deeper understanding of M. mycetomatis.
被忽视的热带病足分支菌病是一种影响身体各个部位的慢性肉芽肿性炎症和传染病。最常见的病原体是真菌马杜拉足分支菌。为了研究这种真菌的遗传多样性并监测任何潜在的疫情爆发，需要一种可用于地方病环境的良好分型方法。以前开发的分型方法缺乏鉴别力，在资源有限的实验室中不易操作。可变数目串联重复序列（VNTR）分型克服了这些困难，并进一步实现了实验室间的数据比较。因此，在本研究中，我们开发了一种用于马杜拉足分支菌分型的VNTR方法。使用在线串联重复序列软件在马杜拉足分支菌分离株MM55的基因组中鉴定出六个串联重复序列。通过PCR和凝胶电泳对从81株来自患者的马杜拉足分支菌分离株获得的DNA进行分析，确定这些重复序列的变异情况。这些患者来自苏丹、马里、秘鲁和印度。81株分离株被分为14个基因型，分别分为两个主要簇，各有七个和五个亚群。VNTR分型证实了马杜拉足分支菌菌株的异质性，可用于研究马杜拉足分支菌的流行病学。本文呈现的结果可应真菌性足分支菌病工作组的要求向科学界全面提供。我们希望这种开放资源的方法能够连接世界各地从事足分支菌病研究的科学界，从而更深入地了解马杜拉足分支菌。
