Related Experiment Videos
Determination of Cryptococcus neoformans var. neoformans mating type by multiplex PCR
M C Esposto1, M Cogliati, A M Tortorano
1Istituto di Igiene e Medicina Preventina, Università degli Studi di Milano, IRCCS Ospedale Maggiore, Milano, Italy.
Abstract:
Mating type plays an important role in the epidemiology and virulence of Cryptococcus neoformans. The present study designed a multiplex PCR method to distinguish the six mating type patterns (Aa, Da, Aalpha, Dalpha, Aa/Dalpha, and Aalpha/Da) of C. neoformans var. neoformans. PCR amplification identified one fragment for Aa (860 bp), Dalpha (413 bp) and Da (645 bp) strains, two fragments for Aalpha (320 and 400 bp) and Aa/Dalpha (860 and 413 bp) strains, and three fragments (645, 400, 320 bp) for an Aalpha/Da strain. The method appears to be a valid, simple and relatively inexpensive tool for epidemiological and virulence studies.