TY - JOUR AU - Alanio, Alexandre AU - Bretagne, Stéphane AU - Gits-Muselli, Maud PY - 2019 DA - 2019/01/17 TI - Genotyping <i>Pneumocystis jirovecii</i>: Impacting Our Understanding of Interhuman Transmission JO - OBM Genetics SP - 060 VL - 03 IS - 01 AB - Pneumocystis jirovecii is an atypical fungus transmitted via interhuman airborn contact. This fungus is exclusively associated with humans and almost each individual has encountered it at least once before reaching the age of two. Pneumocystis jirovecii can be responsible for spontaneously resolutive symptoms in infants and for severe pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) in immunocompromised patients. The increase of the population of immunocompromised patients would probably lead to rising of PCP infections in the next decades. With the advance of molecular technologies and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assays, the detection of low fungal load has been improved and several physiopathological questions has raised. For instance, is PCP due to reactivation of a colonizing strain or acquisition of a new one? Are the strains in PCP and non-PCP patients similar? Are outbreaks due to a specific strain? Most of these questions can be addressed using genotyping, which must be directly performed on clinical specimens because of the absence of reliable culture methods. In this review we will resume the main typing methods developed for P. jirovecii characterization, with their pros and cons, in insisting on the typing of the low fungal loads, a subject rarely underlined. Secondarily, we will present the main results obtained and the importance to include these patients with low fungal load in the analyses because of their possible role as reservoirs and their impact on P. jirovecii transmission. Eventually, we will open the debate on systematic treatment of the patients with low fungal load not only to prevent full-blown PCP, but also to block transmission chain. SN - 2577-5790 UR - https://doi.org/10.21926/obm.genet.1901060 DO - 10.21926/obm.genet.1901060 ID - Alanio2019 ER -