©FUNPEC-RP www.funpecrp.com.br Genetics and Molecular Research 12 (3): 2863-2875 (2013) Use of molecular markers to compare Fusarium verticillioides pathogenic strains isolated from plants and humans S.C. Chang 1 , D.P.C. Macêdo 2 , C.M. Souza-Motta 3 and N.T. Oliveira 1 1 Laboratório de Genética Molecular de Fungos, Departamento de Micologia, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brasil 2 Laboratório de Micologia Médica, Departamento de Micologia, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brasil 3 Micoteca URM, Departamento de Micologia, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brasil Corresponding author: S.C. Chang E-mail: suzycchang@yahoo.com.br Genet. Mol. Res. 12 (3): 2863-2875 (2013) Received November 27, 2012 Accepted April 11, 2013 Published August 12, 2013 DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.4238/2013.August.12.2 ABSTRACT. Fusarium verticillioides is a pathogen of agriculturally im- portant crops, especially maize. It is considered one of the most impor- tant pathogens responsible for fumonisin contamination of food products, which causes severe, chronic, and acute intoxication in humans and ani- mals. Moreover, it is recognized as a cause of localized infections in im- munocompetent patients and disseminated infections among severely im- munosuppressed patients. Several molecular tools have been used to ana- lyze the intraspecifc variability of fungi. The objective of this study was to use molecular markers to compare pathogenic isolates of F. verticillioides and isolates of the same species obtained from clinical samples of patients with Fusarium mycoses. The molecular markers that we used were inter- simple sequence repeat markers (primers GTG 5 and GACA 4 ), intron splice site primer (primer EI1), random amplifed polymorphic DNA marker (primer OPW-6), and restriction fragment length polymorphism-internal