Genotyping of Candida parapsilosis from three neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) using a panel of five multilocus microsatellite markers: Broad genetic diversity and a cluster of related strains in one NICU

Candida parapsilosis (CP) (n = 40) isolated from an unselected patient population in the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) of three US hospitals were collected over periods of 3.5-9 years. Two previously published microsatellite markers and three additional trinucleotide markers were used to produce multiplex genotypes, which revealed broad strain diversity among the NICU isolates with a combined index of discrimination (D) = 0.997. A cluster of eight related CP strains from four infants in a single NICU was observed. An extended collection of 24 CP isolates from the general population of that hospital showed that the cluster of NICU isolates was related to three isolates from general hospital patients. This microsatellite marker set is suitable to investigate clusters of colonizing and infecting strains of CP.

► We obtain Candida parapsilosis isolates from infants in three neonatal intensive care units. ► We apply multilocus microsatellite genotyping to the collection. ► A panel of five microsatellites reveals high discrimination and broad strain diversity. ► A cluster from one hospital implies persistence and possible transmission. ► The five microsatellite set is suitable for infection control purposes.