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Review
. 2021 May 24;7(6):410.
doi: 10.3390/jof7060410.

Environmental Status of Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii in Colombia

Briggith-Nathalia Serna-Espinosa  1 , Diomedes Guzmán-Sanabria  2 , Maribel Forero-Castro  1 , Patricia Escandón  3 , Zilpa Adriana Sánchez-Quitian  2
Affiliations
Review

Environmental Status of Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii in Colombia

Briggith-Nathalia Serna-Espinosa et al. J Fungi (Basel). .

Abstract

The genus Cryptococcus comprises more than 80 species, including C. neoformans and C. gattii, which are pathogenic to humans, mainly affecting the central nervous system. The two species differ in geographic distribution and environmental niche. C. neoformans has a worldwide distribution and is often isolated from bird droppings. On the contrary, C. gattii is reported in tropical and subtropical regions and is associated with Eucalyptus species. This review aims to describe the distribution of environmental isolates of the Cryptococcus neoformans species complex and the Cryptococcus gattii species complex in Colombia. A systematic investigation was carried out using different databases, excluding studies of clinical isolates reported in the country. The complex of the species of C. gattii is recovered mainly from trees of the genus Eucalyptus spp., while the complex of the species of C. neoformans is recovered mainly from avian excrement, primarily Columba livia (pigeons) excrement. In addition, greater positivity was found at high levels of relative humidity. Likewise, an association was observed between the presence of the fungus in places with little insolation and cold or temperate temperatures compared to regions with high temperatures.

Keywords: Colombia; Cryptococcus gattii; Cryptococcus neoformans; ecology; environment.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of environmental isolations of Cryptococcus spp. in Colombia; MS: Map Scale. (A) Department of Cauca, (B) Department of Nariño, (C) Department of Norte de Santander, (D) Department of Córdoba, (E) Department of Huila, (F) Department of Valle del Cauca, (G) Department of Cundinamarca, and (H) Department of Atlántico. Source: The authors of this study, based on the information recorded in Table 1.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Environmental isolate sources of C. neoformans and C. gattii species complexes in Colombia. Source: The authors of this study; image created in BioRender.com.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Environmental conditions reported for each species of Cryptococcus spp. (A) Numbers of isolates reported for each species (C. gattii and C. neoformans), according to their respective varieties. (B) Percentages of relative humidity (RH) reported for the isolates of each species (C. gattii and C. neoformans), according to their respective varieties. (C) Temperatures (°C) reported for the isolates of each species (C. gattii and C. neoformans), according to their respective varieties. Source: The authors of this study; image created in RStudio.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Isolations reported according to their environmental source for the complexes of species of C. neoformans and C. gattii in Colombia. Source: The authors of this study; image created in RStudio.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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