In the present study, the genotypic characterizations of fluconazole and itraconazole (antifungal agents) susceptible and resistant C. albicans isolates were investigated. Thirteen C. albicans isolates were genotypically characterized using both restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and random amplified polymorphic DNA-polymerase chain reaction (RAPD-PCR) methods. Hinf I restriction fragments revealed an obvious polymorphism among the samples yielding five different types of patterns for the C. albicans isolates. Pattern 1 contained C. albicans ATCC 90029 reference strain along with all the five fluconazole/itraconazole susceptible isolates and the two fluconazole susceptible/itraconazole resistant isolates, patterns 2, 3, and 4 each contained a single isolate of the fluconazole/itraconazole resistant C. albicans, and pattern 5 contained the remaining two fluconazole/itraconazole resistant isolates. The RAPD-PCR method on the other hand followed by phylogenetic analysis of the resulting patterns identified the formation of two original clonal type groups (A and B). In group A, C. albicans ATCC 90029 along with all five fluconazole/itraconazole susceptible isolates were further clustered into three subgroups (genotypes), and in group B, two fluconazole susceptible/itraconazole resistant and the remaining five fluconazole/itraconazole resistant isolates were further clustered into five subgroups (genotypes). In relation to RAPD-PCR analysis, most azole susceptible isolates were classified into group A and resistant isolates in group B demonstrating that azole drugs may affect the genotypic behaviour of C. albicans depending on their susceptibility to these drugs.
Key words: Candida albicans, Azole resistance, genotyping, RAPD-PCR, RFLP
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