Identification of Trichosporon spp. strains by sequencing D1/D2 region and sub-typing by sequencing ribosomal intergenic spacer region of ribosomal DNA.

To re-identify and further group 25 isolates of Trichosporon spp. identified morphologically previously, sequences of D1/D2 region of large subunit (LSU) of ribosomal DNA (rDNA) of 25 tested strains for identification and those of ribosomal intergenic space 1 (IGS1) region of 11 strains for subgrouping were detected. The identifications of tested strains were changed except 6 strains. According to the alignment of the IGS1 region, 6 T. asahii isolates tested fell into 4 groups and 5 T. faecale isolates into 3 groups. Polymorphism of 2 T. japonicum isolates was found in 10 positions. With the alignments obtained in this research compared with the relative GenBank entries, it was found that T. asahii, T. faecale and T. japonicum species were divided into 7, 3 and 2 subtypes respectively. Morphological and biophysical methods are not sufficient for Trichosporon spp. identification. Sequencing becomes necessary for Trichosporon diagnosis. There is obvious diversity within a species.