Relatedness analyses of Histoplasma capsulatum isolates from Mexican patients with AIDS-associated histoplasmosis by using histoplasmin electrophoretic profiles and randomly amplified polymorphic DNA patterns

The present paper analyzes the histoplasmin electrophoretic profiles and th e randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) patterns of the fungus Histopla sma capsulatum isolated from Mexican patients with AIDS-associated histopla smosis, Clinical isolates from Guatemala, Colombia, and Panama, as well as PI. capsulatum isolates from different sources in nature, were also process ed. Ail histoplasmin samples shared four antigenic fractious of 200, 49, 10 .5, and 8.5 kDa in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresi s (SDS-PAGE). According to their percentage of relatedness, based on SDS-PA GE histoplasmin electrophoretic image analysis, H. capsulatum isolates were di tided in two groups: group A contained all AIDS-associated isolates stu died and two human reference strains from Mexican histoplasmosis patients w ithout AIDS; group B included hat guano, infected bat, and cock escreta iso lates from the State of Guerrero, Mexico, plus three human histoplasmosis s trains from Guatemala, Panama, and Colombia, Polymorphic DNA patterns evalu ated by RAPD-PCR showed three major bands of 4.4, 3.2, and 2.3 kb in most H , capsulatum isolates studied. Four groups were related by DNA polymorphism s: group I was formed by most of the AIDS-associated PI. capsulatum isolate s studied, one human histoplasmosis strain from Colombia, two human referen ce strains from Mexican patients without AIDS, and one human histoplasmosis strain from Guatemala, Group Ii consisted of only a single strain from Pan ama. Group III included three strains: one from a Mexican patient with AIDS and two isolated from nature in Guerrero (cock escreta and hat guano), The last, group IV, consisted of only one strain isolated from an infected bat , captured in Guerrero, A tight relationship between phenotypic and genotyp ic characterization was observed, and both analyses could be useful tools f or typing H. capsulatum from different sources and geographic origins.