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Article: Rhinosporidium seeberi: A Human Pathogen from a Novel Group of Aquatic Protistan Parasites.(Statistical Data Included)
- Article from:
- Emerging Infectious Diseases
- Article date:
- May 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 U.S. National Center for Infectious Diseases. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Rhinosporidium seeberi, a microorganism that can infect the mucosal surfaces of humans and animals, has been classified as a fungus on the basis of morphologic and histochemical characteristics. Using consensus polymerase chain reaction (PCR), we amplified a portion of the R. seeberi 18S rRNA gene directly from infected tissue. Analysis of the aligned sequence and inference of phylogenetic relationships showed that R. seeberi is a protist from a novel clade of parasites that infect fish and amphibians. Fluorescence in situ hybridization and R. seeberi-specific PCR showed that this unique 18S rRNA sequence is also present in other tissues infected with R. seeberi. Our data ...