Characterization of Scedosporium prolificans clinical isolates by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA analysis.

Fingerprinting by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis was used to differentiate Scedosporium prolificans isolates. A total of 59 arbitrary primers were screened with six unrelated S. prolificans isolates, and a panel of 12 primers was selected. The 12 primers were then used to detect DNA polymorphisms among 17 S. prolificans isolates from 11 patients with systemic S. prolificans infections diagnosed in three hospitals located in geographically different areas of Spain. Eight patients were diagnosed with S. prolificans infection in a single institution over a 6-year period, and two other patients were diagnosed with S. prolificans infection in a different hospital over a 1-year period. No single primer allowed for the discrimination of all the isolates from different patients, but this was possible by combining the RAPD patterns from three primers (UBC 701, AB1.08, and AB1.11 or UBC 701, AB1.08, and UBC 707). However, multiple isolates from the same patient were identical. In this study, we also compared a visual method and a computerized method for the analysis of the RAPD patterns. Both methods were satisfactory and gave few discordances, but given the advantages and disadvantages of each method, both systems should be used together. RAPD analysis provided a fast and economical means of typing S. prolificans isolates, with a high level of discrimination among unrelated isolates. Typing by RAPD analysis confirmed that the S. prolificans infections were epidemiologically unrelated.