Genotyping of dermatophyte fungal species by AP-PCR technique: Pre-publication draft

Dermatophytes fungi are causative agents of dermatophytosis. Surface skin fungi are called dermatophytes after the anatomical localization of the lesions. A total of 164 specimens were collected from patients with dermatophytosis (ring worm) distributed into 89/164(54.26%) specimens from male and 75/164(45.73%) specimens from female. The DTM culture medium was prepared by adding 0.2g of phenol red dye to 1 litter of PDA culture medium, utilized the short oligonucleotide (GACA)4 as a primer for identification of the tested dermatophyte isolates by AP-PCR. AP-PCR products for T. verrucosum isolates consisted of three bands at 150 and 300 bp and faint band in 600 bp. For the T. mentagrophytes isolates consists of four bright bands approximately at 200, 400,500 and 1500 bp. All T. rubrum isolates produced nearly similar band pattern, which consisted of five bright bands (approximately 100, 250, 320,500 bp) and one faint band at 2500 bp. M. canis strains revealed the most complex profiles, with up to 7 bands, ranging from 150 bp to 800 bp in size. These results indicated of the current that the AP-PCR technique is simple, reliable, accurate and easy to performed method for the identification dermatophytes fungi to the species level.