Genetic analysis of emerging fungal pathogens: Trichosporon asahii

Trichosporon asahii is an emerging opportunistic fungus that mainly causes fatal disseminated trichosporonosis, especially in immunocompromised patients. T. asahii infection has been reported in Thailand, but few studies of this fungus have been published. Therefore, this study investigated the genetic diversity of 51 clinical strains of T. asahii from urine samples in Thailand. We sequenced and characterized the beta-1-tubulin (TUB1), copper-exporting ATPase (ATP), phosphate carrier protein (PHCP), and topoisomerase-1 (TOP1) genes. In addition, intergenic spacer 1 (IGS1) sequences from our previous studies were investigated. The numbers of haplotypes were 3, 3, 2, 2, and 2 for IGS1, TUB1, ATP, PHCP, and TOP1, respectively. The results suggested a relatively low level of genetic diversity among the strains. The findings illustrated that IGS1, TUB1, ATP, PHCP, and TOP1 can be collectively used as an alternative molecular typing tool for investigating the population diversity and structure of T. asahii.