USE OF ARBITRARILY PRIMED POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION TO DIFFERENTIATE TRICHOPHYTON DERMATOPHYTES

Dermatophytes such as Trichophyton species are common human pathogens, the infection of which results in dermatophytosis (also known as ring worm), Several laboratory tests are used routinely for the diagnosis o f dermatophytosis, but they are either slow or lacking specificity. Th rough examination of genomic DNA from Trichophyton dermatophytes and o ther fungi in arbitrarily primed PCR, it was shown that a random prime r 5'-ACCCGACCTG-3' produced bands of 4.3 kb, 1.9 kb, 1.7 kb and 0.7 kb in T. rubrum DNA, bands of 2.5 kb, 1.9 kb and 0.8 kb in T. mentagroph ytes var. interdigitale and T. mentagrophytes var. mentagrophytes DNA, and bands of 2.5 kb, 1.9 kb, 1.5 kb and 0.9 kb in T. tonsurans DNA. T his primer amplified bands of different sizes in other fungal DNA. The refore, based on the distinct band patterns observed in arbitrarily pr imed PCR using this primer, T. rubrum, T. mentagrophytes and T. tonsur ans dermatophytes could be rapidly differentiated.