Molecular Characterization and Phylogenetic Analyses of Opportunistic Pathogenic Fungi Associated to Tinea capitis among pupils from Selected Schools in Somolu Local Government, Lagos state, Nigeria

Abstract

Tinea capitis is a contagious, scalp-involving dermatophyte infection, with a high prevalence among pre-pubertal children. This present study aims to isolate and characterize (obtaining the sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of the genome DNA with the PCR method using universal primers for molecular identification and phylogenetic analyses) of opportunistic mycoses pathogens associated with Tinea capitis. Scalp-scrapping were obtained from head lesions of 136 pupils with 85 boys (62.5%) and 51 girls (37.5%) from three primary schools in Somolu local government, Lagos state. One hundred and thirty-three yield fungal growth, of which are twelve fungal species were identified based on their morphological characteristics and nucleotide sequencing of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using primers targeting the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions (ITS1 and ITS4). The identified fungi include: Aspergillus sydowii, Aspergillus niger, Canidida orthopsilosis, Canidida parapsilosis, Chaetomium globosum, Neopestalotiopsis sp and Talaromyces islandicus. The utilization of a pairwise nucleotide differentiation, disparity among species was observed, ranging from 394 to 538 base pair (bp). The data reported here is to provide a basis for further improvement on the available mycoses agents (oral/topical) in order to combat opportunistic human pathogenic fungi associated with Tinea capitis infection in children. This has become a necessity as this group of fungi pathogens are always present (contribute) at the site of this infection.