Abstract: Objective To study the molecular identification method of Candida species and lay the foundation of molecular diagnosis for deep candidiasis. Methods PCR was used to amplify the internal transcribed spacer region of ribosomal DNA from 11 type strains of 9 pathogenic Candida spp. and 39 clinical Candida isolates, and the products were digested with three types of restriction endonucleases (MspⅠ,DdeⅠand HaeⅢ). Results Five patterns of products with different molecular weights were obtained after amplification from 9 Candida spp., and the products were digested with MspⅠ, DdeⅠand HaeⅢ, producing 8, 5 and 4 unique band patterns, respectively. Conclusion PCR-RFLP is reliable, specific and useful for the identification of common pathogenic Candida species.

Key words: Candida, Polymerase chain reaction, Polymorphism, restriction fragment length