[Pigmentation of Cryptococcus neoformans strains on sunflower seed agar]

Abstract

The production of melanin on a medium of sunflower seeds extract agar from 86 strains of Cryptococcus neoformans belonging to the Mycology Laboratory of "Pedro Kouri" Institute of Tropical Medicine was determined. 54.7% of them produced colonies with dark brown pigment, 5.8% a light pigment and 37.2% an intermediate tonality. A fourth group was created for those strains with a true pigment (2.3%). This paper is an important contribution to attain a better characterization of the strains from the collection of the institution and serves as a basis to further studies of pathogenicity and susceptibility.