Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 Sep;10(6):769-78.
doi: 10.1111/j.1567-1364.2010.00648.x. Epub 2010 May 19.

Prevalence of the VNIc genotype of Cryptococcus neoformans in non-HIV-associated cryptococcosis in the Republic of Korea

Young Hwa Choi  1 , Popchai Ngamskulrungroj, Ashok Varma, Edward Sionov, Soo Myung Hwang, Fabian Carriconde, Wieland Meyer, Anastasia P Litvintseva, Wee Gyo Lee, Jong Hee Shin, Eui-Chong Kim, Kyung Won Lee, Tae Yeal Choi, Yeong Seon Lee, Kyung J Kwon-Chung
Affiliations

Prevalence of the VNIc genotype of Cryptococcus neoformans in non-HIV-associated cryptococcosis in the Republic of Korea

Young Hwa Choi et al. FEMS Yeast Res. 2010 Sep.

Abstract

PCR fingerprinting and multilocus sequence typing were applied to determine the major molecular types of the Cryptococcus neoformans/Cryptococcus gattii species complex in the Republic of Korea. Of the 78 strains isolated from patients diagnosed with cryptococcosis between 1990 and 2008, 96% were C. neoformans serotype A, mating type MATalpha and molecular type VNI. The remaining 4% were C. gattii, serotype B, mating type MATalpha and either molecular type VGIIb or VGIII. Of the 62 strains with known HIV status, only 14 (22.6%) were isolated from HIV-positive patients and belonged to molecular type VNI. Remarkably, 93% of the C. neoformans isolates had identical PCR fingerprint profiles with the VNIc genotype that has been identified recently as the major genotype among C. neoformans strains in China. Most strains (81.8%) of the VNIc genotype were associated with non-HIV patients compared with strains of the non-VNIc genotype (20%) (P=0.009). Unlike the Chinese strains, a majority (60%) of the non-HIV patients infected with strains of the VNIc genotype in the Republic of Korea had serious underlying conditions, with cancer and liver disease being the most common. This study affirms VNIc to be the most prevalent genotype of C. neoformans isolated from non-HIV patients with cryptococcosis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The origin and number of cryptococcal isolates collected from each province of the Republic of Korea.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(A) PCR fingerprint patterns obtained with the primer M13 and (B) URA5 RFLP profiles obtained after double digestion with the restriction enzymes HhaI and Sau96I of selected C. neoformans/C. gattii strains isolated from cryptococcosis patients in the Republic of Korea.
Figure 3
Figure 3
A) Dendrogram of the PCR-fingerprint patterns/types obtained with the primer M13 from the C. neoformans isolates. B) Neighbor joining tree based on the concatenated 7 MLST loci of selected Korean strains (in bold italic) in relation to the global C. neoformans and C. gattii strains from previous studies (Bovers, et al., 2008, Ngamskulrungroj, et al., 2009). * This M type was designated according to the previous 12 loci MLST study (Litvintseva, et al., 2006).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Boekhout T, Theelen B, Diaz M, et al. Hybrid genotypes in the pathogenic yeast Cryptococcus neoformans. Microbiology. 2001;147:891–907. - PubMed
    1. Bovers M, Hagen F, Kuramae EE, Boekhout T. Six monophyletic lineages identified within Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii by multi-locus sequence typing. Fungal Genet Biol. 2008;45:400–421. - PubMed
    1. Chee HY, Lee KB. Isolation of Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii (serotype A) from pigeon droppings in Seoul, Korea. J Microbiol. 2005;43:469–472. - PubMed
    1. Chen J, Varma A, Diaz MR, Litvintseva AP, Wollenberg KK, Kwon-Chung KJ. Cryptococcus neoformans strains and infection in apparently immunocompetent patients, China. Emerg Infect Dis. 2008;14:755–762. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Escandon P, Sanchez A, Martinez M, Meyer W, Castaneda E. Molecular epidemiology of clinical and environmental isolates of the Cryptococcus neoformans species complex reveals a high genetic diversity and the presence of the molecular type VGII mating type a in Colombia. FEMS Yeast Res. 2006;6:625–635. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

Associated data