%0 Journal Article %T Multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis for molecular typing of Aspergillus fumigatus %A Simon Thierry %A Dongying Wang %A Pascal Arn¨¦ %A Manjula Deville %A Barbara De Bruin %A Ad¨¦la£¿de Nieguitsila %A Christine Pourcel %A Karine Laroucau %A Ren¨¦ Chermette %A Weiyi Huang %A Fran£¿oise Botterel %A Jacques Guillot %J BMC Microbiology %D 2010 %I BioMed Central %R 10.1186/1471-2180-10-315 %X We selected 10 VNTR markers located on 4 different chromosomes (1, 5, 6 and 8) of A. fumigatus. These markers were tested with 57 unrelated isolates from different hosts or their environment (53 isolates from avian species in France, China or Morocco, 3 isolates from humans collected at CHU Henri Mondor hospital in France and the reference strain CBS 144.89). The Simpson index for individual markers ranged from 0.5771 to 0.8530. A combined loci index calculated with all the markers yielded an index of 0.9994. In a second step, the panel of 10 markers was used in different epidemiological situations and tested on 277 isolates, including 62 isolates from birds in Guangxi province in China, 95 isolates collected in two duck farms in France and 120 environmental isolates from a turkey hatchery in France. A database was created with the results of the present study http://minisatellites.u-psud.fr/MLVAnet/ webcite. Three major clusters of isolates were defined by using the graphing algorithm termed Minimum Spanning Tree (MST). The first cluster comprised most of the avian isolates collected in the two duck farms in France, the second cluster comprised most of the avian isolates collected in poultry farms in China and the third one comprised most of the isolates collected in the turkey hatchery in France.MLVA displayed excellent discriminatory power. The method showed a good reproducibility. MST analysis revealed an interesting clustering with a clear separation between isolates according to their geographic origin rather than their respective hosts.The filamentous fungus Aspergillus fumigatus thrives on decaying vegetation and organic debris. It releases large amounts of asexual spores (conidia), which are dispersed by air. As a result of this ubiquitous presence, people and animals are constantly exposed to A. fumigatus conidia. In humans, conidia can colonize the respiratory tract, causing pulmonary infections including bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, aspergilloma and i %U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2180/10/315