Differentiation of Aspergillus ustus strains by random amplification of polymorphic DNA.

The sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis patterns of water-soluble proteins and the randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) patterns of whole-cell lysates from 21 Aspergillus ustus isolates, including 11 reference strains and 10 patient and environmental strains from one hospital, were investigated. All isolates showed identical protein patterns. The RAPD assay discriminated between all reference strains. Comparison of hospital isolates showed identical RAPD patterns in some of the patient and environmental isolates. The data indicate that the RAPD technique is useful for fingerprinting A. ustus