Urease gene of T richophyton rubrum var. raubitschekii

The recent description (in G en B ank) of a urease‐encoding gene from T richophyton rubrum provides an opportunity to compare this species to the highly similar T . rubrum var. raubitschekii . Therefore, the corresponding genomic DNA was recovered from T . rubrum var. raubitschekii , and the sequence and expression were compared for this urease gene in urease‐positive and ‐negative isolates of T . rubrum and T . rubrum var. raubitschekii . The sequence (2371 bp) of the T . rubrum var. raubitschekii urease gene revealed the presence of three exons. Except for a three‐amino acid insertion, the predicted proteins were identical, but demonstrated protein identity of approximately 70% compared to an Arthroderma gypseum homolog. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed the presence of a corresponding transcript in both urease‐positive T . rubrum var. raubitschekii isolates examined; the same analysis did not detect this transcript in urease‐negative isolates of T . rubrum .