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1 September 2005

Volume 192, Number 5
The Journal of Infectious Diseases 2005;192:888–892
© 2005 by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved.
0022-1899/2005/19205-0021$15.00
DOI: 10.1086/432486
BRIEF REPORT

Prevalence of Clinical Isolates of Cryptococcus gattii Serotype C among Patients with AIDS in Sub‐Saharan Africa

Anastasia P. Litvintseva,1

Rameshwari Thakur,3

L. Barth Reller,2 and

Thomas G. Mitchell1

1Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and 2Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, Department of Pathology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina; 3National Health Laboratory, Ministry of Health, Gaborone, Botswana

Cryptococcus gattii is a group of exogenous, neurotropic yeasts that possess the capsular serotype B or C. Isolates of serotype C are extremely rare and, until recently, were known to infect only immunocompetent individuals. We genotyped 176 isolates of Cryptococcus from patients in sub‐Saharan Africa who had AIDS; 22 (13.7%) of 161 isolates from Botswana and 2 (13.3%) of 15 isolates from Malawi were C. gattii serotype C strains. All of these serotype C strains belong to the rare VGIV genotype, possess the MATα mating‐type allele, and exhibit little genetic diversity.

Received 23 December 2004; accepted 30 March 2005; electronically published 26 July 2005.

Reprints or correspondence: T. G. Mitchell, Box 3803, Dept. of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710 ().

Cited by

Edmond J. Byrnes III, Robert J. Bildfell, Sheryl A. Frank, Thomas G. Mitchell, Kieren A. Marr, and Joseph Heitman. (2009) Molecular Evidence That the Range of the Vancouver Island Outbreak of Cryptococcus gattii Infection Has Expanded into the Pacific Northwest in the United States. The Journal of Infectious Diseases 199:7, 1081-1086
Online publication date: 1-Apr-2009.
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X. Feng, Z. Yao, D. Ren, W. Liao. (2009) Simultaneous identification of molecular and mating types within the Cryptococcus species complex by PCR-RFLP analysis. Journal of Medical Microbiology 57:12, 1481-1490
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Xiaorong Lin, Joseph Heitman. (2006) The Biology of the Cryptococcus neoformans Species Complex. Annual Review of Microbiology 60:1, 69-105
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Juliette Morgan, Kerrigan M. McCarthy, Susan Gould, Ke Fan, Beth Arthington‐Skaggs, Naureen Iqbal, Karen Stamey, Rana A. Hajjeh, and Mary E. Brandt, for the Gauteng Cryptococcal Surveillance Initiative Group. (2006) Cryptococcus gattii Infection: Characteristics and Epidemiology of Cases Identified in a South African Province with High HIV Seroprevalence, 2002–2004. Clinical Infectious Diseases 43:8, 1077-1080
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Kyung J. Kwon-Chung, Ashok Varma. (2006) Do major species concepts support one, two or more species within Cryptococcus neoformans?. FEMS Yeast Research 6:4, 574-587
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  • Potential conflicts of interest: none reported.

    Financial support: National Institutes of Health (Public Health Service grants AI25783 and AI44975).

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