Mycobiology.  2014 Mar;42(1):73-78.

Molecular Epidemiology of Clinical Cryptococcus neoformans Isolates in Seoul, Korea

• Park SH
• Kim M
• Joo SI
• Hwang SM

Abstract

Cryptococcal infection is primarily caused by two species, Cryptococcus neoformans and C. gattii. Between the two species, C. neoformans var. grubii is the major causative agent of cryptococcosis in Asia. We investigated the molecular characteristics of 46 isolates of C. neoformans from patients with cryptococcosis between 2008 and 2012 in Seoul, Korea. All the isolates were determined to be C. neoformans var. grubii (serotype A), mating type MATalpha, and molecular type VNI by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism of the URA5 gene. Multilocus sequencing type (MLST) analysis using the International Society of Human and Animal Mycoses (ISHAM) consensus MLST scheme identified two sequence types (ST). Out of the 46 strains, 44 (95.7%) were identified as ST5, and remaining 2 were identified as ST31. Our study revealed that the clinical strains of C. neoformans in Korea are genetically homogeneous with the VNI/ST5 genotypes, and new appearance of VNI/ST31 genotype may serve as an important indicator of global genetic analysis.

Keyword

Cryptococcus neoformans; Molecular type; Multilocus sequencing type

MeSH Terms

Animals
Asia
Consensus
Cryptococcosis
Cryptococcus neoformans*
Cryptococcus*
Genotype
Humans
Korea
Molecular Epidemiology*
Mycoses
Seoul