Molecular epidemiology of Candida africana isolates collected from vagina swabs in French Guiana.

Candida africana corresponds to the clade 13 of Candia albicans. It has been mostly involved in vulvovaginal candidiasis worldwide but few data exist in South America. The aim of our study was to investigate the prevalence of C. africana in women living in French Guiana. For this, we first set up a fluorescent-intercalating-dye-real time PCR targeting the hyphal wall protein 1 gene. The test was applied to 212 C. albicans isolates collected from May to August 2019 from vaginal swabs, allowing the identification of 6 women harboring C. africana (8 isolates). No demographics or clinical-specific features could be demonstrated. Genetic diversity of those isolates was analyzed through multilocus sequence typing and showed that diploid sequence type 182 was predominant (n=6) and allowed the report of a new diploid sequence type.