Biofilm formation and genotyping of Candida haemulonii, Candida pseudohaemulonii, and a proposed new species (Candida auris) isolates from Korea

Abstract

Emergence of Candida haemulonii and closely related species at five Korean hospitals has been recently described. We examined biofilm formation by these isolates and assessed their genotypic relatedness by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). This study is the first to show that all bloodstream isolates of Candida pseudohaemulonii can form significant biofilms in glucose-containing medium. PFGE of NotI-digested genomic DNA revealed that C. pseudohaemulonii isolates recovered from seven patients in two hospitals shared five patterns, and that 15 isolates of a proposed new species (Candida auris) obtained from patients at three hospitals shared seven patterns, suggesting that some of these isolates may be related to clonal transmission.

Keywords:

• Candida haemulonii
• Candida pseudohaemulonii
• Candida auris
• genotyping
• biofilm

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (MOEHRD) (KRF-2007-E00432), and a grant (CRI09034) from Chonnam National University Hospital Research Institute of Clinical Medicine.

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

Ethical approval: Not required

This paper was first published online on Early online on 11 June 2010.