title: Molecular Epidemiology of Clinical Cryptococcus neoformans Isolates in Seoul, Korea.
abstract: Cryptococcal infection is primarily caused by two species, Cryptococcus neoformans and C. gattii. Between the two species, C. neoformans var. grubii is the major causative agent of cryptococcosis in Asia. We investigated the molecular characteristics of 46 isolates of C. neoformans from patients with cryptococcosis between 2008 and 2012 in Seoul, Korea. All the isolates were determined to be C. neoformans var. grubii (serotype A), mating type MATα, and molecular type VNI by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism of the URA5 gene. Multilocus sequencing type (MLST) analysis using the International Society of Human and Animal Mycoses (ISHAM) consensus MLST scheme identified two sequence types (ST). Out of the 46 strains, 44 (95.7%) were identified as ST5, and remaining 2 were identified as ST31. Our study revealed that the clinical strains of C. neoformans in Korea are genetically homogeneous with the VNI/ST5 genotypes, and new appearance of VNI/ST31 genotype may serve as an important indicator of global genetic analysis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory Science, Catholic University of Pusan, Busan 609-757, Korea.
authors.forename: So Hae
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Ulsan University School of Medicine, Seoul 138-736, Korea.
authors.forename: Mina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul 110-744, Korea.
authors.forename: Sei Ick
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Joo
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory Science, Catholic University of Pusan, Busan 609-757, Korea.
authors.forename: Soo Myung
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Hwang
keywords: Cryptococcus neoformans; Molecular type; Multilocus sequencing type