Genotyping and phylogenetic analysis of Acanthamoeba isolates associated with keratitis

Abstract

We examined a partial SSU-rDNA sequence from 20 Acanthamoeba isolates associated with keratitis infections. The phylogenetic tree inferred from this partial sequence allowed to assign isolates to genotypes. Among the 20 isolates examined, 16 were found to be of the T4 genotype, 2 were T3, 1 was a T5, and 1 was a T2, confirming the predominance of T4 in infections. However, the study highlighted other genotypes more rarely associated with infections, particularly the T2 genotype. Our study is the second one to detect that this genotype is associated with keratitis. Additionally, the phylogenetic analyses showed five main emerging clusters, T4/T3/T11, T2/T6, T10/T12/T14, T13/T16, and T7/T8/T9/T17, regularly obtained whichever method was used. A similar branching pattern was found when the full rDNA sequence was investigated.