Dermatophytes being animal and human pathogenic fungi infect some human at one point or the
other in their lifetime. For effective control of dermatophytes, accurate identification of the specific species/strain
involved must be known. Stocks from pathogenic fungi isolated from infected areas on different patients, around
Lagos-Nigeria were analysed using molecular methods (DNA extraction, PCR-RFLP and DNA sequencing). Four
DNA extraction protocols were employed in the identification of the fungal isolates. Sixteen different fungal isolates
were identified, and based on the molecular data these were classified into six species of dermatophytes belonging to
the genera
Microsporum
,
Trichophyton
and
Epidermaphyton
, two species of systemic mycoses fungi and eight
opportunistic human pathogenic fungi. The results also revealed that CTAB protocol, Modified CTAB protocol and
the GNOME kit used in this work were only able to extract non-dermatophytes DNA. Only the Zymo DNA kit was
able to isolate dermatophytes DNA. DNA extraction which is the first step in all molecular studies showed that one
DNA extraction method might not be able to extract all fungal DNA for proper identification, diagnosis and treatment
of fungal infections.
