Molecular identification of Sporothrix clinical isolates in China

In this study, we investigated the molecular phylogeny of 64 clinical isolates which were identified as Sporothrix schenckii sensu lato by morphological identification. All of the strains were isolates from patients from several provinces in China. The phylogeny was inferred by DNA sequence analyses based on datasets of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and a combined ITS and partial beta-tubulin region. Reference sequences were retrieved from GenBank. Results showed that all of the isolates were clustered in a distinct clade with a type of Sporothrix globosa. Our analysis showed that S. globosa is the causal agent of the tested sporotrichosis in China, rather than S. schenckii that was generally believed to be the case. The existence of S. schenckii in China remains to be confirmed. This study improved our understanding of the distribution of the species in S. schenckii complex.