Genetic characterization of morphologically variant strains of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis

Molecular characterization of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis variant strains that had been preserved under mineral oil for decades was carried out by random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis (RAPD). On P. brasiliensis variants in the transitional phase and strains with typical morphology, RAPD produced reproducible polymorphic amplification products that differentiated them. A dendrogram based on the generated RAPD patterns placed the 14 P. brasiliensis strains into five groups with similarity coefficients of 72%. A high correlation between the genotypic and phenotypic characteristics of the strains was observed. A 750 bp-RAPD fragment found only in the wild-type phenotype strains was cloned and sequenced. Genetic similarity analysis using BLASTx suggested that this RAPD marker represents a putative domain of a hypothetical flavin-binding monooxygenase (FMO)-like protein of Neurospora crassa.