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Towards the Genotyping of Fungi: Methods, Benefits and Challenges

  • Advances in Diagnosis of Invasive Fungal Infections (U Binder, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Several fungi have recently been described as capable to recombine and drive large genetic diversity in clinical samples and in the environment. Among the genotyping methods, microsatellite analysis is frequently reported as preferred for studying local epidemiology, but single nucleotide polymorphisms represent the best markers for evaluation of recombination, linkage and aneuploidy. The future of typing analyses may reside in strategies capable of cataloging the whole genome and complete microbial diversity. The present review focuses the current strategies employed for fungal genotyping and evaluation of genetic diversity, and the challenges of next generation sequencing with regard to this topic. Typing methods establish the genetic identity of fungal isolates and allow clarification of outbreaks and transmission of strains between individuals, comparison of chronic colonization versus patients carrying unrelated strains, detection of co-evolution of pathogenic and/or drug-resistant strains. The next advances in molecular mycology may revolutionize clinics and redesign concepts of microbial evolution.

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Acknowledgments

R Araujo was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) Ciência 2007 and by the European Social Fund. IPATIMUP is an associate laboratory of the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, and is partially supported by FCT.

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Conflict of Interest

R Araujo declares no conflicts of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

All studies by R Araujo involving animal and/or human subjects were performed after approval by the appropriate institutional review boards. When required, written informed consent was obtained from all participants.

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  1. IPATIMUP, Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology of the University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, s/n, 4200-465, Porto, Portugal

    Ricardo Araujo

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Araujo, R. Towards the Genotyping of Fungi: Methods, Benefits and Challenges. Curr Fungal Infect Rep 8, 203–210 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12281-014-0190-1

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