Molecular Epidemiology of
 Candida albicans
 and Its Closely Related Yeasts
 Candida dubliniensis
 and
 Candida africana

“…However, currently C. africana is known as a biovariant of C. albicans with an exceptional capacity to colonize human genitalia and cause mainly vaginal infections (Romeo and Criseo, 2011; Romeo et al, 2013). Its distribution appears to be worldwide, with cases of infection reported from China (Shan et al, 2014; Hu et al, 2015), Japan (Odds et al, 2007), South Korea (Song et al, 2014), Colombia (Rodríguez-Leguizamón et al, 2015), Argentina (Theill et al, 2016), Chile (Odds et al, 2007), India (Sharma et al, 2014), Iran (Yazdanparast et al, 2015), Africa (Tietz et al, 2001; Dieng et al, 2012; Nnadi et al, 2012; Ngouana et al, 2015), USA (Romeo et al, 2013), and Europe (Alonso-Vargas et al, 2008; Romeo and Criseo, 2009; Borman et al, 2013). However, despite the efforts made so far, it is rather difficult to discriminate C. africana from C. albicans in clinical diagnostic laboratories and therefore its epidemiology is still unclear and needs more investigation (Romeo et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, despite the efforts made so far, it is rather difficult to discriminate C. africana from C. albicans in clinical diagnostic laboratories and therefore its epidemiology is still unclear and needs more investigation (Romeo et al, 2013). Nevertheless, overall prevalence of C. africana in European vaginal samples can be estimated around 6–16% (Romeo and Criseo, 2009; Borman et al, 2013) while in Africa, it appears to be much more variable ranging from ∼2% in Senegal and Nigeria to 23% in Angola and 40% in Madagascar (Romeo et al, 2013). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Whole Genome-Based Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism Analysis Reveals Genetic Diversity in Candida africana

et al. 2017

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This study aimed at investigating the genetic diversity of a panel of Candida africana strains recovered from vaginal samples in different countries. All fungal strains were heterozygous at the mating-type-like locus and belonged to the genotype A of Candida albicans. Moreover, all examined C. africana strains lack N-acetylglucosamine assimilation and sequence analysis of the HXK1 gene showed a distinctive polymorphism that impair the utilization of this amino sugar in this yeast. Multi-locus sequencing of seven housekeeping genes revealed a substantial genetic homogeneity among the strains, except for the CaMPIb, SYA1 and VPS13 loci which contributed significantly to the classification of our set of C. africana strains into six existing diploid sequence types. Amplified fragment length polymorphism fingerprint analysis yielded greater genotypic heterogeneity among the C. africana strains. Overall the data reported here show that in C. africana genetic diversity occurs and the existence of this intriguing group of C. albicans strains with specific phenotypes associated could be useful for future comparative studies in order to better understand the genetics and evolution of this important human pathogen.

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“…Epidemiological analyses of C. africana have been hampered by the failure of the commonly employed commercially available identification methods to distinguish it from C. albicans (reviewed in references 21 and 16). However, studies employing PCR amplicon length analyses of the Hwp-1 gene (24) revealed that C. africana constituted 7.2% of C. albicans complex isolates in three different hospitals in southern Italy, a prevalence 3 times that of C. dubliniensis in samples from principally nonsterile sites from the same cohort of hospitalized patients (25).…”

Section: T He Incidence Of Invasive Fungal Infections Caused By Unusualmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epidemiology, Antifungal Susceptibility, and Pathogenicity of Candida africana Isolates from the United Kingdom

Borman¹,

Székely²,

Linton³

et al. 2013

J Clin Microbiol

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Candida africana was previously proposed as a new species within the Candida albicans species complex, together with C. albicans and C. dubliniensis, although further phylogenetic analyses better support its status as an unusual variant within C. albicans. Here we show that C. africana can be distinguished from C. albicans and C. dubliniensis by pyrosequencing of a short region of ITS2, and we have evaluated its occurrence in clinical samples by pyrosequencing all presumptive isolates of C. albicans submitted to the Mycology Reference Laboratory over a 9-month period. The C. albicans complex constituted 826/1,839 (44.9%) of yeast isolates received over the study period and included 783 isolates of C. albicans, 28 isolates of C. dubliniensis, and 15 isolates of C. africana. In agreement with previous reports, C. africana was isolated exclusively from genital specimens, in women in the 18-to-35-year age group. Indeed, C. africana constituted 15/251 (6%) of "C. albicans" isolates from female genital specimens during the study period. C. africana isolates were germ tube positive, grew significantly more slowly than C. albicans and C. dubliniensis on conventional mycological media, could be distinguished from the other members of the C. albicans complex by appearance on chromogenic agar, and were incapable of forming chlamydospores. Here we present the detailed evaluation of epidemiological, phenotypic, and clinical features and antifungal susceptibility profiles of United Kingdom isolates of C. africana. Furthermore, we demonstrate that C. africana is significantly less pathogenic than C. albicans and C. dubliniensis in the Galleria mellonella insect systemic infection model.

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Molecular Epidemiology of Candida albicans and Its Closely Related Yeasts Candida dubliniensis and Candida africana

Cited by 51 publications

References 25 publications

Identification de trois souches de Candida africana au Sénégal

Identification de trois souches de Candida africana au Sénégal

Whole Genome-Based Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism Analysis Reveals Genetic Diversity in Candida africana

Epidemiology, Antifungal Susceptibility, and Pathogenicity of Candida africana Isolates from the United Kingdom

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