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One Health approach to understand emerging zoonotic pathogens in the Trichophyton benhamiae complex
Čmoková, Adéla ; Hubka, Vít (advisor) ; Buchta, Vladimír (referee) ; Gené, Josepa (referee)
The Trichophyton benhamiae complex encompasses several zoonotic pathogens that are of increasing concern to the scientific community due to their epidemic spread among pets and their owners. Of particular concern is the sudden appearance and rapid spread of T. benhamiae yellow phenotype strains in Europe. Considerable genetic and phenotypic variability has been revealed in the pathogens from the complex, yet the species limits and host spectra have not been clearly elucidated. To explore the diversity, epidemiology, and taxonomy of the T. benhamiae complex, my colleagues and I formed an international, cross-disciplinary team and applied a holistic One Health approach. We collected a large dataset of strains from several continents, along with associated data about host, clinical picture, and locality. Due to the high level of clonality in commonly used DNA sequence markers, I developed a new typing schema based on ten microsatellite markers and four DNA sequence markers. We then used a polyphasic approach combining data from independent analyses to decide on species limits in the T. benhamiae complex, including phylogenetic and population-genetic analyses, phenotypic and physiological analyses, mating-type gene characterization, ecological data and MALDI- TOF mass spectrometry analysis. Thanks to...
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Verification of species boundaries in clinically relevant Arthroderma species
Míková, Ivana ; Hubka, Vít (advisor) ; Dobiáš, Radim (referee)
The genus Arthroderma contains predominantly geophilic dermatophytes (naturally occuring in soil). Some species, especially those from Trichophyton terrestre complex, cause human and animal dermatomycosis. In the past, the species boundaries were determined mainly on the basis of biological species concept using in vitro mating experiments. But these nearly 70-years-old findings have not been tested by means of modern taxonomic methods. In total 194 species of the genus Arthroderma (including all available ex-type strains) originating predominantly in USA, Canada and Europe were studied in this thesis. They were mostly isolated from soil (n = 77), animals (n = 50), human clinical material (n = 41) and cave sediment (n = 9). The main goal of the thesis was to elucidate the species boundaries between species A. insingulare, A. lenticulare and A. quadrifidum, that were classified into the T. terrestre complex because of their seemingly identical asexual stage. Further, this work aimed to resolve the relationship between Arthroderma species using the multigene phylogeny and clarify which species are clinically relevant. A multigene phylogeny of the genus Arthroderma was based on the sequences of the ITS rDNA region, β-tubulin (TUB2) and translation elongation factor 1α (TEF1α) genes. The genus...
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