Journal of Fungi (Mar 2021)

Clinical Origin and Species Distribution of <i>Fusarium</i> spp. Isolates Identified by Molecular Sequencing and Mass Spectrometry: A European Multicenter Hospital Prospective Study

  • Anne-Cécile Normand,
  • Sébastien Imbert,
  • Sophie Brun,
  • Abdullah M. S. Al-Hatmi,
  • Erja Chryssanthou,
  • Sophie Cassaing,
  • Christine Schuttler,
  • Lilia Hasseine,
  • Caroline Mahinc,
  • Damien Costa,
  • Christine Bonnal,
  • Stéphane Ranque,
  • Marc Sautour,
  • Elisa Rubio,
  • Laurence Delhaes,
  • Arnaud Riat,
  • Boualem Sendid,
  • Lise Kristensen,
  • Marcel Brandenberger,
  • Juliette Guitard,
  • Ann Packeu,
  • Renaud Piarroux,
  • Arnaud Fekkar

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/jof7040246
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 4
p. 246

Abstract

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Fusarium spp. are widespread environmental fungi as well as pathogens that can affect plants, animals and humans. Yet the epidemiology of human fusariosis is still cloudy due to the rapidly evolving taxonomy. The Mass Spectrometry Identification database (MSI) has been developed since 2017 in order to allow a fast, accurate and free-access identification of fungi by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization—time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry. Taking advantage of the MSI database user network, we aim to study the species distribution of Fusarium spp. isolates in an international multicenter prospective study. This study also allowed the assessment of the abilities of miscellaneous techniques to identify Fusarium isolates at the species level. The identification was performed by PCR-sequencing and phylogenic-tree approach. Both methods are used as gold standard for the evaluation of mass spectrometry. Identification at the species complex was satisfactory for all the tested methods. However, identification at the species level was more challenging and only 32% of the isolates were correctly identified with the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) DNA database, 20% with the Bruker MS database and 43% with the two MSI databases. Improvement of the mass spectrometry database is still needed to enable precise identification at the species level of any Fusarium isolates encountered either in human pathology or in the environment.

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