Molecularbiological methods in taxonomy and diagnostics of dermatophytes

Trichophyton rubrum, T. mentagrophytes, T. verrucosum, Microsporum canis, M . gypseum and Epidermophyton flocoosum represent the cause of human determa tomycoses isolated most often at the University Hospital of Dermatology in Graz, Austria, between 1991 and 1998. So far, identification was mainly bas ed on the cultivation of fungal isolates on special media as well as on the analysis of their microscopic characters. Restriction enzyme length polymo rphisms (RFLPs) were now used to identify these human fungal parasites. For this purpose, internal transcribed spacers (ITS) which are located between ribosomal RNA genes have been amplified by using PCR and have afterwards b een used to generate species specific RFLP patterns. By this method, a fast and reliable identification of these species was made possible. Nucleotide sequence data of this region not needed for identification have been worke d out to show RFLPs in more detail.