Application of polymerase chain reaction to fingerprinting Aspergillus fumigatus by random amplification of polymorphic DNA.

A new method for fingerprinting Aspergillus fumigatus by random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) by using single primers with arbitrary sequences is described. Five primers were examined with 19 isolates from six patients with aspergilloma as well as with A. fumigatus NCPF 2109. Two of the primers (GCT GGT GG and GCG CAC GG, 5' to 3') gave adequate discrimination between isolates, generating five and six types, respectively. Combination of the results obtained with each of these two primers generated 12 types. This compares very favorably with immunoblot fingerprinting and XbaI-generated restriction fragment length polymorphisms on the same isolates. Typeability and reproducibility were good with RAPD, and RAPD was less labor-intensive than immunoblot fingerprinting. RAPD typing results suggested that aspergillomas sometimes contain isolates of more than one type.