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PLoS One

Title:		Environmental isolation of Cryptococcus gattii VGII from indoor dust from typical wooden houses in the deep Amazonas of the Rio Negro basin
Author(s):		Brito-Santos F; Barbosa GG; Trilles L; Nishikawa MM; Wanke B; Meyer W; Carvalho-Costa FA; Lazera Mdos S;
Address:		"Mycology Laboratory, Evandro Chagas Clinical Research Institute, FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. National Institute for Quality Control in Health, INCQS/FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Mycology Laboratory, Evandro Chagas Clinical Research Institute, FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Molecular Mycology Research Laboratory, Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, Sydney Medical School-Westmead Hospital, Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, The University of Sydney, Westmead Millennium Institute, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Laboratory of Molecular Epidemiology and Systematics, Institute Oswaldo Cruz, FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil"
Journal Title:		PLoS One
Year:		2015
Volume:		20150217
Issue:		2
Page Number:		e0115866 -
DOI:		10.1371/journal.pone.0115866
ISSN/ISBN:		1932-6203 (Electronic) 1932-6203 (Linking)
Abstract:		"Cryptococcosis is a human fungal infection of significant mortality and morbidity, especially in the meningoencephalitis form. Cryptococcosis is distributed worldwide and its agents, C. neoformans and C. gattii, present eight major molecular types-VNI-VNIV and VGI-VGIV respectively. The primary cryptococcosis caused by molecular type VGII (serotype B, MAT alpha) prevails in immunocompetent patients in the North and Northeast of Brazil, revealing an endemic regional pattern to this molecular type. Since 1999, C. gattii VGII has been involved in an ongoing outbreak in Canada, and is expanding to the Northwest of the United States, two temperate regions. Exposure to propagules dispersed in the environment, related to various organic substrates, mainly decomposing wood in and around dwellings, initiates the infection process. The present study investigated the presence of the agents of cryptococcosis in dust from dwellings in the upper Rio Negro, municipality of Santa Isabel do Rio Negro in Amazonas state. Indoor dust was collected from 51 houses, diluted and plated on bird seed agar. Dark brown colonies were identified phenotypically, and genotypically by URA5 restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). The mating type was identified using pheromone-specific primers. Three of the 51 houses were positive for C. gattii molecular type VGII, MATalpha and MATa, showing a high prevalence of this agent. MLST studies identified eight subtypes, VGIIb (ST7), VGIIa (ST20), (ST5) and 5 new subtypes unique to the region. For the first time in the state of Amazonas, C. gattii VGII MATalpha and MATa were isolated from the environment and correlates with endemic cryptococcosis in this state. This is the first description of MLST subtypes on environmental isolates in the Brazilian Amazon, indicating domiciliary dust as a potential source for human infection with different subtypes of C. gattii VGII MATalpha and MATa"
Keywords:		"*Air Microbiology *Air Pollution, Indoor Brazil Cryptococcus gattii/*classification/genetics/*isolation & purification *Dust Geography Humans Multilocus Sequence Typing Phenotype Phylogeny *Tropical Climate;"
Notes:		"MedlineBrito-Santos, Fabio Barbosa, Glaucia Goncalves Trilles, Luciana Nishikawa, Marilia Martins Wanke, Bodo Meyer, Wieland Carvalho-Costa, Filipe Anibal Lazera, Marcia dos Santos eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't 2015/02/18 PLoS One. 2015 Feb 17; 10(2):e0115866. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0115866. eCollection 2015"