Comparative RAPD analysis of causative agent of rhinosporidiosis and Microcystis isolated from pond waters

摘要

Rhinosporidiosis is endemic in several states of South India. The disease does not respond to any form of treatment, and after surgical excision of polyps, recurrences are common. Polypoidal masses of rhinosporidiosis contain microscopic round bodies which are diagnostic for this disease, and are believed to be the causative agent. The identity of a round body filled with numerous daughter cells, has been controversial for many decades. Investigations on samples of polyps have led earlier authors to suggest that the round body could be a protozoan1'3, a fungus named Rhinosporidium seeber, alga with precursors of chlorophyll, an organism similar to that found in plant crown gall tumours, and an agent showing phy-logenetic relationship with protoctistan parasites of fish referred to as DRIP clade. Most authors however, consider the round body as the sporangium of a fungus R. seeberi filled with spores, but fungal etiology could not be proved. Since patients have a history of bathing in ponds, water samples were collected from exact locations in ponds where patients had been dipping, from four endemic states of India, and analysed in the laboratory.