The mitochondrial intergenic regions nad1-cob and cob-rps3 as molecular identification tools for pathogenic members of the genus Cryptococcus. Cryptococcus_cob_rps3

Cryptococcus spp. are fungal species belonging to Tremellomycetes, Agaricomycotina, Basidiomycota and responsible for one of the most ubiquitous human mycoses, cryptococcosis. Affecting mainly immune suppressed patients but also immune competent ones, the members of this genus present a high level of genotypic diversity, which is a subject of interest among many studies the past few years which include a plethora of laboratory methods. In this work, two mitochondrial intergenic regions, i.e., nad1-cob and cob-rps3, were tested for the intra- or inter- species discrimination and identification of the fungal strains and species of the genus Cryptococcus. Individual and concatenated phylogenetic trees were constructed based on matrices from the above mentioned mitochondrial intergenic regions. The sequences used for these matrices belong to 13 highly pathogenic strains of C. neoformans/C. gattii complex, representing all serotypes, AFLP genotypes and thus, represent all newly introduced Cryptococcus species, with the addition of other sequences extracted from the available published sequences of cryptococcal species. The strains clustered well and were discriminated as expected and in accordance to the new taxonomy, with both intergenic regions, as well as with the concatenated dataset. According to these results, it may be suggested that identification of the strains with the use of intergenic regions of their mitochondrial genome using PCR amplification is a quick and effective method to elucidate the genotypic differences among Cryptococcal species and strains. Thus, these regions may be applicable to a broad range of clinical studies, leading to a rapid recognition of the clinical profiles of the patients.