Isolation and molecular characterization of clinical and environmental dematiaceous fungi and relatives from Iran.

Background And Purpose: The frequency and genetic diversity of black fungi in environmental and clinical settings have not been fully studied in Iran. This study aimed to identify and evaluate intra- and inter-species DNA sequence variation and also understand the phylogenetic relationships of melanized fungi and relatives isolated from different geographical regions of Iran.

Materials And Methods: In total, 111 clinical and environmental strains of dematiaceous fungi were isolated, and their internal transcribed spacer ribosomal DNA (rDNA) regions were sequenced and analyzed.

Results: An inter-species nucleotide sequence diversity rate of 1 to 464 nucleotides was observed between the species. Intra-species differences were found in the strains of and by 0-59, 0-22, 0-4, 0-4, 0-3, 0-2, 0-2, 0-2, 0-2, 0-1, and 0-1 nucleotide, respectively.

Conclusion: The internal transcribed spacer rDNA is useful for the discrimination of several taxa of dematiaceous fungi. However, a better understanding of the taxonomy of species of requires a larger rDNA region or a library of other gene sequences.