title: Black yeast-like fungi associated with Lethargic Crab Disease (LCD) in the mangrove-land crab, Ucides cordatus (Ocypodidae).
abstract: Lethargic Crab Disease (LCD) caused extensive epizootic mortality of the mangrove land crab Ucides cordatus (Brachyura: Ocypodidae) along the Brazilian coast, mainly in the Northeastern region. The disease was named after the symptoms of slow movement of infected crabs. Causative agents were suspected to be two black yeast-like fungi of the family Herpotrichiellaceae (ascomycete order Chaetothyriales), judged by infected tissue biopsies from moribund U. cordatus. The aim of the present study is to prove that two species are involved in the disease: the recently described black yeast Exophiala cancerae, but also a less virulent, hitherto undescribed fonsecaea-like species, introduced here as the novel species Fonsecaea brasiliensis. Strains were identified by ITS rDNA sequencing, and species borderlines were established by multilocus sequencing and AFLP analysis. Fonsecaea brasiliensis proved to be closely related to the pathogenic species Cladophialophora devriesii which originally was isolated from a systemic infection in a human patient. The virulence of F. brasiliensis is lower than that of E. cancerae, as established by artificial inoculation of mangrove crabs.
authors.affiliation: CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Vania A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Vicente
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Orélis-Ribeiro
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Najafzadeh
authors.forename: Jiufeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Raquel Schier
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Guerra
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Miesch
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ostrensky
authors.forename: Jacques F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Meis
authors.forename: Corné H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Klaassen
authors.forename: G S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: de Hoog
authors.forename: Walter A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Boeger
mesh_terms: D054458:Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism Analysis; D000818:Animals; D001203:Ascomycota / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D003386:Brachyura / Q000235:genetics / Q000382:microbiology*; D001938:Brazil; D005093:Exophiala / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D010802:Phylogeny