Genotyping of Russian isolates of fungal pathogen Trichophyton rubrum, based on simple sequence repeat and single nucleotide polymorphism.

Background: The Trichophyton rubrum species group consists of prevalent causative agents of human skin, nail and hair infections, including T rubrum sensu stricto and T violaceum, as well as other less well-established or debatable taxa like T soudanense, T kuryangei and T megninii. Our previous study provided limited evidence in favour of the existence of two genetic lineages in the Russian T rubrum sensu stricto population.

Objectives: We aimed to study the genetic structure of the Russian population of T rubrum and to identify factors shaping this structure.