PARITY AMONG THE RANDOMLY AMPLIFIED POLYMORPHIC DNA METHOD, MULTILOCUS ENZYME ELECTROPHORESIS, AND SOUTHERN BLOT HYBRIDIZATION WITH THE MODERATELY REPETITIVE DNA-PROBE CA3 FOR FINGERPRINTING CANDIDA-ALBICANS

Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis, mutilocus enzyme e lectrophoresis (MLEE), and Southern blot hybridization with moderately repetitive DNA probes have emerged as effective fingerprinting method s for the infectious fungus Candida albicans. The three methods Rave b een compared for their capacities to identify identical or highly rela ted isolates, to fluster weakly related isolates, to discriminate betw een unrelated isolates, and to assess microevolution within a strain, Bg computing similarity coefficients between 29 isolates from three ci ties within the continental United States, strong concordance of the r esults is demonstrated Fur RAPD analysis, MLEE, and Southern blot hybr idization with the moderately repetitive probe Ca3, and weaker concord ance of the results is demonstrated for these three fingerprinting met hods and Southern blot hybridization with the moderately repetitive pr obe CARE2. All methods were also demonstrated to be able to resolve mi croevolution within a strain, with the Ca3 probe exhibiting the greate st resolving power. The strong correlations demonstrated between polym orphic markers assessed by the four independent fingerprinting methods and the nonrandom association between loci demonstrated by RAPD analy sis and. MLEE provide evidence for strong linkage disequilibrium and a clonal population structure for C. albicans. In addition, a synapomor phic allele, Pep-3A, was found to be present in all members of one of the three clusters discriminated by RAPD analysis, MLEE, and Ca3 finge rprinting, supporting the concordance of the clustering capacities of the three methods, the robustness Of the clusters, and the clonal natu re of the clusters.