Abstract
Taking into account that paracoccidioidomycosis infection occurs by inhalation of the asexual conidia produced by Paracoccidioides spp. in its saprobic phase, this work presents the collection of aerosol samples as an option for environmental detection of this pathogen, by positioning a cyclonic air sampler at the entrance of armadillo burrows. Methods included direct culture, extinction technique culture and Nested PCR of the rRNA coding sequence, comprising the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region. In addition, we evaluated one armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) as a positive control for the studied area. Although the pathogen could not be isolated by the culturing strategies, the aerosol sampling associated with molecular detection through Nested PCR proved the best method for discovering Paracoccidioides spp. in the environment. Most of the ITS sequences obtained in this investigation proved to be highly similar with the homologous sequences of Paracoccidioides lutzii from the GenBank database, suggesting that this Paracoccidioides species may not be exclusive to mid-western Brazil as proposed so far.
Acknowledgements
We thank Dr Brett Green and the CDC (Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention, Morgentown, WV) for providing the cyclonic sampler used in this study. This work was supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP grant number 2010/ 12669-4) and by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES).
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 4 July 2012.