Candida dubliniensis was reported as a new species in 1995. This species is often misidentified as Candida albicans. The aims of this work were to determine the occurrence of C. dubliniensis in various clinical materials, to evaluate several ways to identify it and to examine the genetic variability of isolates. Among 7706 isolates originally identified as C. albicans, 237 were identified as C. dubliniensis (3.1%). Most of the C. dubliniensis isolates were obtained from the upper and lower respiratory tract (61.4 and 22.9%). Five phenotypic methods including latex agglutination were used (cultivation on CHROMagar Candida, on Staib agar, at 42 °C and in medium with 6.5% NaCl), but only cultivation on the medium with an increased concentration of NaCl and latex agglutination gave reliable results. Species-specific polymerase chain reaction was used as the confirmation method. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry provided less reliable results. In fact, 78.9% of C. dubliniensis isolates had scores above 1.7. However, the rest of them (21.1%) were also identified as C. dubliniensis even when the scores were lower than 1.7. Divergences among C. dubliniensis strains were evaluated by means of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Eighty-six selected C. dubliniensis isolates showed a 69.6% level of similarity. The results of this study expand the knowledge of the incidence, means of identification and genotypic divergence of C. dubliniensis isolates.

• MeSH
• Candida classification   genetics   isolation & purification   physiology   MeSH
• Sodium Chloride metabolism   MeSH
• Genetic Variation MeSH
• Genotype MeSH
• Candidiasis microbiology   MeSH
• Latex Fixation Tests MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Microbiological Techniques methods   MeSH
• Polymerase Chain Reaction MeSH
• Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field MeSH
• Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization MeSH
• Temperature MeSH
• Check Tag
• Humans MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Sodium Chloride MeSH