Hyphal wall protein 1 gene: A potential marker for the identification of different Candida species and phylogenetic analysis

• DOI: 10.18869/acadpub.cmm.2.4.1
• Publication Date: 2017-09-12T10:48:05Z
• Authors: Mahdi Abastabar; ; Susan Hosseinpoor; ; Mohammad Taghi He...; ; Tahereh Shokohi; ; Reza Valadan; ; Hossein Mirhendi; ; Rasoul Mohammadi; ; Seyed Reza Aghili; ; Nooshin Rahimi; ; Narges Aslani; ; Iman Haghani; ; Sara Gholami
• Keywords: HWP1 gene; 0301 basic medicine; Identification; 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; Phylogenetic analysis; QH301-705.5; Candida species; Original Article; Biology (General); Internal medicine; RC31-1245

Hyphal wall protein 1 (HWP1) is an important adhesin which usually is expressed on the germ tube and hyphal surface produced by different Candida species. The hyphal wall protein-coding gene (HWP1) was evaluated as a novel identification and phylogenetic marker in Candida tropicalis, C. orthopsilosis, C. parapsilosis and C. glabrata.Initially, four specific primer pairs were designed, and the target was amplified and finally sequenced. A total of 77 Candida isolates from four different species were included in the study. Consensus sequences were used for the evaluation of phylogenetic tree using the CLC Genome Workbench, GENEIOUS, and MEGA softwares and the levels of nucleotide and amino acid polymorphism were assessed.According to the results, the specific amplified fragments of HWP1 gene were useful for the differentiation of four species. Intra-species variation was observed only in C. tropicalis with two DNA types. The phylogenetic tree of Candida species based on the HWP1 gene showed consistency in topology with those inferred from other gene sequences.We found that HWP1 gene was an excellent marker for the identification of non-albicansCandida species as well as the phylogenetic analysis of the most clinically significant Candida species.