Genetic Variations of Trichophyton rubrum Clinical Isolates from Korea

Trichophyton rubrum is one of the well-known pathogenic fungi and causes dermatophytosis and cutaneous mycosis in human world widely. However, there are not an available sequence type (ST) classification methods and previous studies for T. rubrum until now. Therefore, currently, molecular biological tools using their DNA sequences are used for genotype identification and classification. In the present study, in order to characterize the genetic diversity and the phylogenetic relation of T. rubrum clinical isolates, five different housekeeping genes, such as actin (ACT), calmodulin (CAL), RNA polymerase II (RPB2), superoxide dismutase 2 (SOD2), and ${\beta}$-tubulin (BT2) were analyzed using by multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Also, DNA sequence analysis was performed to examine the differences between the sequences of Trichophyton strains and the identified genetic variations sequence. As a result, most of the sequences were shown to have highly matched rates in their housekeeping genes. However, genetic variations were found on three different positions of ${\beta}$-tubulin gene and were shown to have changed from $C{\rightarrow}G$ (1766), $G{\rightarrow}T$ (1876), and $C{\rightarrow}A$ (1886). To confirm the association with T. rubrum inheritance, a phylogenetic tree analysis was performed. It was classified as four clusters, but there was little significant correlation. Even so, MLST analysis is believed to be helpful for determining the genetic variations of T. rubrum in cases where there is more large-scale data accumulation. In conclusion, the present study demonstrated the first MLST analysis of T. rubrum in Korea and explored the possibility that MLST could be a useful tool for studying the epidemiology and evolution of T. rubrum through further studies.