Application of molecular typing methods to dermatophyte species that cause skin and nail infections

Typing methods utilising DNA technology were applied to a collection of Trichophyton mentagrophytes and T. rubrum isolates from skin and nail infections. The methods included restriction enzyme analysis (REA), hybridisation with the DNA probe poly (dG-dT), randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) by PCR and restriction analysis of a segment of PCR-amplified rDNA. All these tests successfully differentiated the species, but few intra-species differences were detected. REA demonstrated some isolate variation, but this was limited and difficult to interpret, making it unsuitable as a typing tool. RAPD demonstrated few variations amongst T. mentagrophytes and none in T. rubrum.