Trichophyton mentagrophytes complex
Date Issued
2009
Date
2009
Author(s)
Sun, Pei-Lun
Abstract
Trichophyton mentagrophytes complex, belonging to dermatophytes, is a group of important pathogenic fungi that can cause various human skin infections such as tinea capitis, tinea faciei, tinea corporis, tinea manuum, tinea pedis and onychomycosis. They have a wide range of hosts, including human, cats, dogs, rats, and hedgehogs and can use the keratinous substracts from the hosts as the nutrition source. This is an important public health issue because they can transmit between humans and between human and animals by direct or indirect contact. Culturing and accurate identification of these fungi can help to clarify the routes of infection. This is also very important in the treatment of patients.raditionally, T. mentagrophytes complex consists of three main species, viz. T. mentagrophytes, T. interdigitale and T. erinacei. Due to morphological similarity and existing intermediate forms and variants, there is a great confusion in their taxonomic status. This confusion leads to trouble in choosing correct strains for research and the epidemiological statistics of fungal infections by this group of fungi and further impeding our communicating about it.n this study, we used 48 isolates of the T. mentagrophytes complex obtained from human and animals in Taiwan to perform clinical analysis and molecular taxonomy. We examined the correlation between morphology of the isolates and the clinical presentations. We also used ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 andβ-tubulin gene regions for molecular taxonomy according to the latest taxonomic definition of the T. mentagrophytes complex proposed by Gräser et. al. By this definition, our result shows that among 48 isolates, 21 isolates belong to the anthropophilic strain of T. interdigitale; 22 isolates belong to the zoophilic strain of T. interdigitale; and 5 isolates belong to T. erinacei. No T. mentagrophytes was found. Because the new classification is quite different from what it used to be, confusion in the nomenclature of the T. mentagrophytes complex will be expected. The applicability of Gräser’s taxonomic concept requires further evaluation.
Subjects
T. mentagrophytes
T. interdigitale
T. erinacei
taxnonomy
SDGs
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