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Environmental Isolation of Cryptococcus gattii Serotype B, VGI/MATα Strains in Southern Italy

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Abstract

Until recently, Cryptococcus gattii was believed to be endemic in tropical and subtropical regions. To date, it has unexpectedly emerged as primary pathogen in temperate climate indicating that it has evolved and adapted to new environmental conditions including those existing in the Mediterranean area. Earlier attempts to isolate C. gattii from our environment were unsuccessful but this time, 18 years after the last environmental screening for C. neoformans, we isolated C. gattii from Eucalyptus camaldulensis in Reggio Calabria, Italy. The strains were serotype B, mating type α and were assigned to the molecular type VGI. In this study, we reported the first real environmental isolation of C. gattii in southern Italy that emphasized the observed global expansion of this yeast.

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Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to Prof. Demetrio Delfino (The Elie Metchnikoff Department, University of Messina, Italy) for generously providing us the C. neoformans H99 strain. We also thank Prof. Anna Maria Tortorano (Department of Public Health-Microbiology-Virology, School of Medicine, University of Milan, Italy) for sending us the C. gattii strains NIH444, NIH191, WM779 and WM163.

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  1. Department of Life Sciences, Section of Microbiological, Genetic and Molecular Sciences, University of Messina, Viale Ferdinando Stagno d’Alcontres, 31 98166, Messina, Italy

    Orazio Romeo, Fabio Scordino & Giuseppe Criseo

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Correspondence to Giuseppe Criseo.

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Romeo, O., Scordino, F. & Criseo, G. Environmental Isolation of Cryptococcus gattii Serotype B, VGI/MATα Strains in Southern Italy. Mycopathologia 171, 423–430 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11046-010-9389-z

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