New ITS genotype of Cryptococcus gattii isolated from an AIDS patient in Brazil

Abstract

Based on combinations of nine variable nucleotides at nine different base positions in the ITS1-5.8SITS2 region, Cryptococcus gattii strains were classified into six genotypes. A new genotype of C. gattii, designated as ITS type 8, was isolated from an AIDS patient in Brazil. The ITS type 8 strain is closely related to the ITS type 4 strain, which has been frequently isolated in Brazil and the USA, but which shows ITS-signatured nucleotide difference at each nucleotide position. The ITS type 8 strain is also differentiated from all heretofore reported ITS types of C. gattii strains in the RAPD band patterns and IGS sequence information. © 2008 The Societies and Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.