COMPARATIVE GENOMIC ANALYSIS AND FUNCTIONAL ANNOTATION OF DIFFERENT STRAINS OF TRICHOPHYTON RUBRUM

Abstract

Dermatophyte species are a group of parasitic filamentous fungi that are known to be closely related and are primary causative agents of skin infections. Trichophyton rubrum is an anthropophile dermatophyte which is the most common agent for most of the skin infections like tinea pedis. To provide the genetic basis of fundamental and putatively pathogenicityrelated traits of Trichophyton rubrum strains, we compared sets of pathogenicity-related proteins, such as secretory peptidases, lipases and proteins involved in skin infection. These dermatophytes are enriched in large number of enzymes i.e. Cytochrome P450 family which are associated with secondary metabolite synthesis. This comparative genomic analysis include finding gene families like Carbohydrate active enzymes, kinases etc. that have the ability to cause disease, genes that act as virulence factors and novel genes in different strains of Trichophyton rubrum. In this study we predicted the large number of protein coding gene that encodes pathogenicity-related proteins in different strains of Trichophyton rubrum. We also performed multiple sequence alignment of four genes that show drug resistance to identify any amino acid replacement in drug resistance genes. This study could help in finding the genes responsible for dermatophytosis and in finding the reasons for drug resistance in dermatophyte species.