Low genetic diversity of Pneumocystis jirovecii among Cuban population based on two-locus mitochondrial typing

Abstract

Genotypes of two different loci of the Pneumocystis jirovecii mitochondrial gene were studied in specimens from a total of 75 Pneumocystis pneumonia patients in Spain, France and Cuba. A new genotype of the mitochondrial small subunit rRNA gene of P. jirovecii (160A/196T) was identified, which was revealed to be the most common in these three countries, especially in Cuba where its proportion reached 93.8%. Our data imply that the new genotype might be circulating worldwide and also suggests that the distribution of P. jirovecii genotypes could be narrower in islands such as Cuba.

Keywords:

• Pneumocystis
• epidemiology
• genotypes

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (FIS-PI080983). This research is part of the project “Pneumocystis Pathogenomics: Unravelling the Colonization-to-Disease Shift” into a Coordination Action supported by the European Commission (ERA-NET PathoGenoMics).

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

This paper was first published online on Early Online on 22 September 2011.