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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, February 2005, p. 551-555, Vol. 43, No. 2
0095-1137/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JCM.43.2.551-555.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Multiple Genetically Distinct Groups Revealed among Clinical Isolates Identified as Atypical Aspergillus fumigatus
Margaret E. Katz,1*
Annette M. Dougall,1
Kerry Weeks,2 and
Brian F. Cheetham1
Molecular and Cellular Biology Division, School of Biological, Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, University of New England, Armidale,1
Mycology Reference Laboratory, Pacific Laboratory Medicine Services, The Royal North Shore Hospital of Sydney, St. Leonards, New South Wales, Australia2
Received 21 January 2004/
Returned for modification 8 March 2004/
Accepted 16 September 2004

ABSTRACT
To investigate whether genetic variants of
A. fumigatus are
found among clinical isolates, four isolates that were originally
identified as poorly sporulating strains of
Aspergillus fumigatus were subjected to molecular analysis. DNA sequence analysis
of the alkaline protease genes of these isolates showed that
each is genetically distinct and each shows substantial variation
(7 to 11%) from the
A. fumigatus nucleotide sequence. Subsequent
morphological examination suggested that all of the isolates
could be classified as
Aspergillus viridinutans. To clarify
the taxonomic status of these four clinical isolates and of
two previously identified as atypical
A. fumigatus isolates,
partial ß-tubulin and 18S rRNA gene sequences were
determined. Each of the six atypical strains had a unique ß-tubulin
sequence, whereas the sequences of three standard isolates of
A. fumigatus, which were included as controls, were identical
to the published
A. fumigatus ß-tubulin sequence.
The very low level of DNA sequence variation detected in standard
isolates of
A. fumigatus compared with other isolates from members
of
Aspergillus section
Fumigati suggests that it may be a relatively
recently evolved species. The 18S rRNA gene of two of the atypical
isolates differed from that of
A. fumigatus at a single nucleotide
position. Phylogenetic analyses do not support the classification
of all of these isolates as
A. viridinutans. Thus, some of these
isolates represent new species which are potential opportunistic
pathogens.

INTRODUCTION
Aspergillus fumigatus is the species most commonly associated
with aspergillosis in immunocompromised patients. A number of
DNA-based methods have been developed to detect
A. fumigatus for diagnostic purposes and to type strains to study the origin
and transmission of nosocomial infections. Diagnostic methods
using PCR rely on amplification of specific DNA sequences, which
could vary between strains. Sequence analysis of protein coding
genes such as the cytochrome
b gene (
21) has revealed little
or no sequence variation between standard isolates of
A. fumigatus.
In contrast, seven isolates of
Aspergillus viridinutans, another
asexual species in the section
Fumigati, showed considerable
genetic variability in ß-tubulin gene sequences (
19).
Members of the Aspergillus section Fumigati are distinguished by the profiles of mycotoxins and secondary metabolites that they produce (2) and, in the case of species with known sexual states (genus Neosartorya), the morphology of the ascospores (17). The evolutionary relationship of A. fumigatus to other species from Aspergillus section Fumigati has been investigated using DNA sequence data obtained from the ß-tubulin gene (3), the hydrophobin gene (3), and the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene (21). These analyses have shown that morphological variation in isolates of A. fumigatus is not necessarily accompanied by variation in chemical profiles or DNA sequences (2, 21).
In a previous study, DNA sequence analysis of the alkaline protease gene (Alp) was used to investigate two atypical isolates of A. fumigatus (NSW3 and FRR 1266) (8). The sequence obtained from an isolate with standard morphology (QLD1) showed greater than 99% identity with published sequences for three human isolates. However, the two atypical isolates differed by more than 6 and 10% of the nucleotides, respectively (8). Subsequent phylogenetic analysis of ß-tubulin sequences by Varga et al. (20) indicated that FRR 1266 is closely related to A. viridinutans. In this study, we use DNA sequence analysis of the Alp, ß-tubulin, and 18S rRNA genes to clarify the taxonomic status of these isolates and four additional clinical isolates with similar characteristics.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Fungal strains.
The strains used in this study are listed in Table
1. Isolates
MK245, MK246, MK284, and MK285 were obtained from the Mycology
Reference Laboratory, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, New
South Wales, Australia, for identification. Strains NSW3 and
QLD1 were obtained from ostriches suffering from aspergillosis
(
7). These six isolates were considered to be the causative
agent of aspergillus infections. FRR 581, FRR 582, and FRR 1266
were provided by Ailsa Hocking and John Pitt of the Commonwealth
Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Food Science
Australia, North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia. The six atypical
isolates described in this paper have been deposited in the
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
FRR Culture Collection, North Ryde, New South Wales, 1670 Australia.
PCR amplification.
The PCR primers that were used in this study are listed in Table
2.
DNA sequencing.
The DNA sequences of the PCR products were determined by a combination
of direct sequencing of the PCR product and sequencing of the
cloned PCR products and subclones derived thereof by standard
molecular techniques (
16). The sequences of both strands of
the Alp gene PCR products were determined. The 18S rRNA gene
PCR products were sequenced on one strand and compared to the
sequence of the 18S rRNA gene of
A. fumigatus. When nucleotide
sequence differences were detected, they were confirmed by sequencing
both strands. The ß-tubulin PCR products were sequenced
with the benA1 and benA2 primers as described in Geiser et al.
(
3).
Fungal morphology.
The morphology of strains MK245, MK246, MK284, MK285, NSW3, and FRR 1266 was examined by John Pitt and Ailsa Hocking at Food Science Australia, North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia.

RESULTS
Alkaline protease gene amplification.
Genetic variation in four clinical isolates (MK245, MK246, MK284,
and MK285) was initially assessed by DNA sequence analysis of
the Alp gene. Primers alp1 and alp2, which were used previously
to amplify part of the Alp gene of
A. fumigatus and genetic
variants (
7,
8), failed to yield amplification products from
two of the isolates, MK246 and MK284. Longer primers (alp3 and
alp4), based on regions of high similarity in the Alp genes
of
A. fumigatus,
Aspergillus oryzae,
Aspergillus nidulans, and
Aspergillus flavus, were synthesized (Table
2) and were successfully
used to amplify a 1.3-kb section of the Alp gene.
Phylogenetic analysis of alkaline protease gene sequences.
The sequences of the Alp PCR products from the four clinical isolates were compared to the sequences from two strains which we had analyzed previously (NSW3 and FRR 1266) and published sequences for A. fumigatus and other Aspergillus species (Table 3). The isolates fell into two classes. The Alp gene sequence of MK245 showed the highest similarity to NSW3, and the Alp gene of both of these isolates showed a similar degree of nucleotide similarity to the Alp of A. fumigatus (93%) (Table 4). MK246, MK284, and MK285 showed the highest similarity to FRR 1266, and the Alp genes from this group of strain showed 88 to 89% identity to the A. fumigatus Alp gene. The Alp gene sequences of the four clinical isolates were each unique, but the MK246 and MK284 sequences differed by only 2%. Phylogenetic analysis of the Alp sequences supports the division of the six isolates into two groups (Fig. 1). MK245 and NSW3 form a cluster with A. fumigatus (cluster 1), whereas MK246, MK284, MK285, and FRR 1266 form a separate cluster in this tree (cluster 2).
Morphology.
To determine whether the two groups of isolates were distinguished
by morphological differences, the isolates were reexamined by
John Pitt and Ailsa Hocking at Food Science Australia without
prior knowledge of the results of the phylogenetic analysis.
They concluded that all the isolates could be classified as
A. viridinutans. Colonies of
A. viridinutans resemble those
of
A. fumigatus, except that sporulation is reduced, so colonies
are pale green blue rather than deep blue, and growth at 37°C
is slower with a colony diameter of 50 mm after 7 days on Czapek
yeast agar, rather than >70 mm.
A. viridinutans is distinct
microscopically in having stipes that are short, <50 µm
long, and often bent just below the vesicle to give an asymmetrical
appearance, termed nodding by Raper and Fennell (
15). Stipes
of
A. fumigatus are straight and often 300 µm long. Vesicles
are small and up to 15 µm wide, while those of
A. fumigatus are up to 30 µm in diameter.
A. viridinutans appears to
be endemic to Australia (J. Pitt, personal communication).
Analysis of ß-tubulin gene sequences.
Partial ß-tubulin gene sequences were available for a number of A. viridinutans isolates (19) and other species in Aspergillus section Fumigati (3, 20). To allow comparison of the six atypical isolates with other members of Aspergillus section Fumigati, the same section of the ß-tubulin gene used in previous analyses was amplified with the primers designed by Geiser et al. (3), and the DNA sequences of the PCR products were determined.
Phylogenetic analysis of the ß-tubulin gene sequences from the six atypical isolates, six isolates of A. viridinutans (19), and other species from Aspergillus section Fumigati is shown in Fig. 2. The phylogenetic tree generated by the DNA sequence parsimony method is similar to that shown in Fig. 1 in that it places the cluster 1 and 2 isolates in separate lineages. However, the topology within cluster 1 differs with respect to the position of MK285 (cluster 1b). The cluster 1a isolates (MK246, MK284, and FRR 1266) are grouped with four of the six A. viridinutans isolates, including the type strain IMI 062875. The tree also indicates that MK285 is closely related to Neosartorya aureola (cluster 1b), NSW3 to Neosartorya spinosa (cluster 2c), and MK245 to A. viridinutans IMI 306135 (cluster 2b). The neighbor-joining method gave a tree with identical topology, except that the positions of Aspergillus brevipes and Neosartorya pseudofischeri were exchanged (data not shown).
Partial ß-tubulin gene sequences were obtained from
three standard isolates of
A. fumigatus (Table
1). All sequences
were identical to the
A. fumigatus sequence reported by Geiser
et al. (
3). In contrast, a maximum of 98% similarity was observed
in the ß-tubulin gene sequences of the other isolates
that were analyzed (Table
5).
Sequence analysis of the 18S rRNA gene.
The DNA sequence of a 347-bp section of the 18S rRNA gene of
NSW3 and FRR 1266 had previously been shown to be identical
to the sequence of the 18S rRNA gene of
A. fumigatus (
8). To
further investigate the taxonomic status of these two strains
and the four atypical clinical isolates, 1.6 kb of the 18S rRNA
gene from each isolate was determined. The DNA sequence of the
PCR product generated with primers rRNA1 and rRNA2 (Table
2)
from the cluster 1a isolates MK246 and MK285 contained a single
nucleotide difference, T instead of C at position 483 of the
A. fumigatus 18S rRNA gene sequence reported by Nikkuni et al.
(
11). The sequences of the remaining four atypical isolates
in clusters 1 and 2 were identical to the
A. fumigatus 18S rRNA
gene.

DISCUSSION
Though morphological examination of the two isolates from cluster
2 (NSW3 and MK245) indicated that they could be classified as
A. viridinutans, phylogenetic analysis did not. It has been
shown that species recognition based on morphological differences
often leads to the inclusion of two or more species, as defined
by phylogenetic analyses or mating tests, in a single morphological
species (
18). For example, nine species were recognized within
Fusarium graminearum, based on the phylogenetic analysis of
11 genes (
12). Morphological characters, which could be used
to distinguish some of these phylogenetically distinct species,
were subsequently identified. It may be that further phenotypic
examination of the isolates will reveal characteristics which
distinguish the atypical isolates in cluster 1 from cluster
2.
The partial ß-tubulin gene sequences of two of the atypical isolates show 98% identity with Neosartorya species, NSW3 with N. spinosa (cluster 2c) and MK285 with N. aureola (cluster 1b). These results suggest that these two isolates may represent asexual mutants derived from Neosartorya species or may be closely related asexual species.
MK245 (cluster 2b) grouped with A. viridinutans IMI 306135 (isolated from soil in western Australia) which Varga suggested may represent a new species or a highly unusual isolate of A. fumigatus based on toxin profiles, mitochondrial DNA, restriction fragment length polymorphism analyses, and partial ß-tubulin sequences (19). Thus, cluster 2b represents an undescribed species of Aspergillus that is capable of infecting immunocompromised patients.
The partial ß-tubulin gene sequences of all the atypical isolates and strains classified as A. viridinutans were unique. In contrast, the partial ß-tubulin gene sequences of three standard A. fumigatus isolates from Australia and Indonesia are identical to the sequence obtained from A. fumigatus strain HD133 from the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France. The very low level of DNA sequence variation detected in A. fumigatus compared with other isolates from members of Aspergillus section Fumigati suggests that it may be a relatively recently evolved species.
DNA sequence analysis of two protein-encoding genes of the cluster 1a isolates revealed a considerable degree of genetic variation in this group of strains (from 2 to 8% in pairwise comparisons) (Table 5 and data not shown). The high level of DNA sequence variation and phylogenetic analyses indicate that this group may contain several cryptic species. However, the separate clades within cluster 1a are not all strongly supported. Furthermore, the phylogenetic tree of Alp sequences includes MK285 within this group of atypical isolates, whereas the tree of ß-tubulin sequences does not. The phylogenetic species recognition approach proposed by Taylor et al. (18) is based on concordance of multiple gene genealogies. As only two polymorphic genes have been analyzed and the resulting two trees are not concordant, the asexual strains within cluster 1 could be considered a single species (A. viridinutans) by this method. Analysis of additional genes will be required to clarify the taxonomic status of this group.
Analysis of the 18S rRNA gene showed that four of the isolates had a sequence identical to A. fumigatus, and the others (MK246 and MK284) differed at only one position. Thus, some of the isolates in clusters 1 and 2 share an identical 18S rRNA gene sequence. The sequence of the Neosartorya fischeri 18S rRNA gene (GenBank accession no. NFU21299) contains a single-base-pair deletion corresponding to position 1327 of the A. fumigatus sequence (8). Based on our experience with sequencing the 18S rRNA gene, this difference is likely to be due to a sequencing error, as we have observed sequencing anomalies at exactly that position. The sequences of the A. viridinutans, N. aureola, and N. spinosa 18S rRNA genes have not been determined. Sequence analysis of the 28S rRNA genes of A. fumigatus, N. fischeri, N. aureola, and N. spinosa strains has revealed sequence differences between these four species (13). There is no accepted rule on the number of nucleotide differences in rRNA genes which define different species or genera.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We gratefully acknowledge the technical assistance of Ron Wicks
and Karen Gray. We thank John Pitt and Ailsa Hocking for morphological
examinations and David Backhouse for helpful discussions.

FOOTNOTES
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia. Phone: (61) 2-6773-3016. Fax: (61) 2-6773-3267. E-mail:
mkatz{at}metz.une.edu.au.


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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, February 2005, p. 551-555, Vol. 43, No. 2
0095-1137/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JCM.43.2.551-555.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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