Clustering of Acanthamoeba isolates from human eye infections by means of mitochondrial DNA digestion patterns

A total of 90 Acanthamoeba isolates from human eye infections from 15 countries were clustered into distinct genotypes according to their mtDNA restriction fragment patterns. Closely related digestion phenotypes (sequence difference 0.1-1.5%) were integrated into a single genotype, whereas phenotypes with greater than 4.76% difference were considered distinct. Approximately 80% of the human isolates studied fell into 7 of 22 genotypes, indicating that virulence may be associated with specific clusters of cladistic groups of Acanthamoeba. This technique is useful for large-scale surveying of this particular pathogen.