Abstract
Nucleotide variation in the Pneumocystis jirovecii upstream conserved sequence (UCS) and kexin-like serine protease (Kex1) loci was studied in pulmonary specimens from Portuguese HIV-positive patients. DNA was extracted and used for specific molecular sequence analysis. The number of UCS tandem repeats detected in 13 successfully sequenced isolates ranged from three (9 isolates, 69%) to four (4 isolates, 31%). A novel tandem repeat pattern and two novel polymorphisms were detected in the UCS region. For the Kex1 gene, the wild-type (24 isolates, 86%) was the most frequent sequence detected among the 28 sequenced isolates. Nevertheless, a nonsynonymous (1 isolate, 3%) and three synonymous (3 isolates, 11%) polymorphisms were detected and are described here for the first time.
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Acknowledgement
F. Esteves was supported by a PhD grant (SFRH/BD/22193/2005) from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia.
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Esteves, F., Tavares, A., Costa, M.C. et al. Genetic characterization of the UCS and Kex1 loci of Pneumocystis jirovecii . Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 28, 175–178 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-008-0596-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10096-008-0596-1