Australia in the global picture of the molecular epidemiology of Cryptococcus gattii molecular type VGII

Carolina Firacative; Kennio Ferreira-Paim; Luciana Trilles; David M Engelthaler; Wieland Meyer

doi:10.1071/MA15023

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Australia in the global picture of the molecular epidemiology of Cryptococcus gattii molecular type VGII

Carolina Firacative ^A , Kennio Ferreira-Paim ^A ^B , Luciana Trilles ^C , David M Engelthaler ^D and Wieland Meyer ^A ^E

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A 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, NSW, Australia

^B Infectious Disease Department, Triangulo Mineiro Federal University, Uberaba, Minas Gerais, Brazil

^C Laboratório de Micologia, Instituto Nacional de Infectologia Evandro Chagas (INI), Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

^D Translational Genomics Research Institute, Flagstaff, AZ, USA

^E Corresponding author. Tel: +61 2 8627 3430, Fax: +61 2 9891 5317, Email: wieland.meyer@sydney.edu.au

Microbiology Australia 36(2) 67-70 https://doi.org/10.1071/MA15023
Published: 17 March 2015

Abstract

Cryptococcosis, a life-threatening disease of the lung and central nervous system of humans and a broad range of other animals, is caused by the basidiomycetous yeasts Cryptococcus neoformans and C. gattii¹. Although most cases of infection in the world are caused by C. neoformans, there is an important prevalence of C.gattii among clinical and veterinary samples in Australia²^–⁴ and the natural habitat of the yeast is strongly associated with native Eucalyptus species⁴^,⁵, which together position Australia as an endemic area for the less common cryptococcal species. From the numerous C.gattii infections that have been reported in Australia, the molecular type VGII, amongst the four recognised molecular types (VGI-VGIV), has been associated with a high occurrence and a number of small cryptococcosis outbreaks, with most of the isolates belonging to the clonal subtype VGIIb², which was initially described in 1999 causing part of the ongoing cryptococcosis outbreak on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada⁶. These findings indicate that Australia is an important stepping-stone in the global dispersion of this outbreak-related subtype and highlight the need for continuous surveillance.

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