Find in Library

The objective of this work was to compare the usefulness of a randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) assay by using OPA-18 oligonucleotide for identification and genetic relation detection among different Candida albicans strains isolated from animals and humans. Thirty isolates were obtained from human and animals and genotyped in the previous study according to 25S rDNA into genotypes A, B, C and T, identification was documented by germ tubes production, chlamydospores production on Corn-Meal-Tween 80 agar, characteristic green color on Candida-CHROMagar media (CHROMagar microbiology, France), and the final identification was confirmed by HiCandida Identification kit (HiMedia, India), RAPD-PCR fingerprinting which was carried out by using OPA-18 oligonucleotide. Results indicate that RAPD fingerprinting obtained by OPA-18 primer was not useful for C. albicans identification and these patterns were consistent under the same genotype, but there were differences among different genotypes of C. albicans. Also, this study indicates that the same genotypic patterns were genetically identical but there was a different degree of genetic relationships between different genotypes. RAPD-PCR using OPA-18 primer was a very specific and sensitive method for epidemiological study at molecular level because of easy, reliable and highly sensitive to subgenotyping of C. albicans but it was of less value in the identification of this microorganism.