Isolation and molecular characterization of Candida africana from Jos, Nigeria.

During a survey of the prevalence of Candida spp. in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria, two atypical C. albicans isolates were recovered. These two yeasts were germ tube positive, chlamydospore-negative and gave a green color on CHROMagar Candida. Molecular analysis performed by amplification of the hwp1 gene showed that these two isolates belonged to C. africana, a newly proposed Candida species closely related to C. albicans. Based on the presence or absence of an intron in DNA sequences encoding rRNA, the two C. africana, including all C. albicans isolates examined, were found to belong to genotype A and no other genotypes or species such as C. dubliniensis were found. To our knowledge, this is the first isolation of C. africana in Nigeria.