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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, June 2001, p. 2126-2133, Vol. 39, No. 6
UMR 956 INRA-AFSSA-ENVA Biologie
Moléculaire et Immunologie Parasitaires et Fongiques, École
Nationale Vétérinaire d'Alfort,
Maisons-Alfort,1 Parc Zoologique de La
Palmyre, Le Mathes,2 and
Parasitologie-Mycologie, Faculté de Médecine et
CHRU de Lille,4 and Ecologie du
Parasitisme, Institut Pasteur de Lille,5 Lille,
France, and Molecular Infectious Diseases Group, Institute of
Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United
Kingdom3
Received 18 January 2001/Returned for modification 8 March
2001/Accepted 8 April 2001
Primates are regularly infected by fungal organisms identified as
Pneumocystis carinii. They constitute a valuable population for the confirmation of P. carinii host specificity. In
this study, the presence of P. carinii was assessed by
direct examination and nested PCR at mitochondrial large subunit
(mtLSU) rRNA and dihydropteroate synthetase (DHPS) genes in 98 lung
tissue samples from captive or wild nonhuman primates. Fifty-nine air
samples corresponding to the environment of different primate species in zoological parks were also examined. Cystic forms of P. carinii were detected in smears from 7 lung tissue samples
corresponding to 5 New World primate species. Amplifications at the
mtLSU rRNA gene were positive for 29 lung tissue samples representing
18 different primate species or subspecies and 2 air samples
corresponding to the environment of two simian colonies. Amplifications
at the DHPS gene were positive for 8 lung tissue samples representing 6 different primate species. Direct sequencing of nested PCR products demonstrated that a specific mtLSU rRNA and DHPS sequence could be
attributed to each primate species or subspecies. No nonhuman primate
harbored the human type of P. carinii (P. carinii f. sp. hominis). Genetic divergence in
primate-derived P. carinii organisms varied in terms of the
phylogenetic divergence existing among the corresponding host species,
suggesting coevolution.
0095-1137/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JCM.39.6.2126-2133.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Phylogeny of Pneumocystis carinii from
18 Primate Species Confirms Host Specificity and Suggests
Coevolution
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Service de
Parasitologie-Mycologie, École Nationale Vétérinaire
d'Alfort, 7, Avenue du Général de Gaulle, 94704 Maisons-Alfort, France. Phone: 331 43 96 71 57. Fax: 331 43 75 35 07. E-mail: j.guillot{at}vet-alfort.fr.
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