title: The Case for Adopting the "Species Complex" Nomenclature for the Etiologic Agents of Cryptococcosis.
abstract: Cryptococcosis is a potentially lethal disease of humans/animals caused byCryptococcus neoformansandCryptococcus gattii. Distinction between the two species is based on phenotypic and genotypic characteristics. Recently, it was proposed thatC. neoformansbe divided into two species andC. gattiiinto five species based on a phylogenetic analysis of 115 isolates. While this proposal adds to the knowledge about the genetic diversity and population structure of cryptococcosis agents, the published genotypes of 2,606 strains have already revealed more genetic diversity than is encompassed by seven species. Naming every clade as a separate species at this juncture will lead to continuing nomenclatural instability. In the absence of biological differences between clades and no consensus about how DNA sequence alone can delineate a species, we recommend using "Cryptococcus neoformansspecies complex" and "C. gattiispecies complex" as a practical intermediate step, rather than creating more species. This strategy recognizes genetic diversity without creating confusion.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Clinical Infectious Diseases, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
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authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Kwon-Chung
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Clinical Infectious Diseases, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Bennett
authors.affiliation: University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Brian L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Wickes
authors.affiliation: Molecular Mycology Research Laboratory, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia; Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia.
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authors.affiliation: Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
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authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5778-960X
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authors.affiliation: Office of Cyber Infrastructure and Computational Biology, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
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authors.affiliation: Institute of Infection and Immunity, St. George's University of London, London, United Kingdom.
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authors.lastname: Bicanic
authors.affiliation: Colombia Instituto Nacional de Salud, Bogota, Colombia.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
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authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Clinical Infectious Diseases, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Yun C
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authors.affiliation: Mycology Center, Changzheng Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Jianghan
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authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Massimo
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authors.lastname: Cogliati
authors.affiliation: Institut Pasteur, Molecular Mycology Unit, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Françoise
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authors.lastname: Dromer
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.
authors.forename: David
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authors.affiliation: Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, USA.
authors.forename: Scott G
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authors.lastname: Filler
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Matthew C
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1862-6402
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authors.affiliation: Institute of Infection and Immunity, St. George's University of London, London, United Kingdom.
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authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Clinical Infectious Diseases, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
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authors.lastname: Holland
authors.affiliation: Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan.
authors.forename: Shigeru
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authors.lastname: Kohno
authors.affiliation: Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: James W
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authors.affiliation: Instituto Nacional de Infectologia Evandro Chagas, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Marcia
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authors.lastname: Lazera
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Stuart M
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authors.lastname: Levitz
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Clinical Infectious Diseases, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Michail S
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authors.lastname: Lionakis
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbiology and Infection and School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Robin C
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5364-1838
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authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
authors.forename: Popchai
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authors.lastname: Ngamskulrongroj
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
authors.forename: Peter G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Pappas
authors.affiliation: Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: John R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Perfect
authors.affiliation: Robert Koch Institut, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Volker
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Rickerts
authors.affiliation: Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia; Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Tania C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Sorrell
authors.affiliation: Departments of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Microbiology and Immunology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas J
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authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Clinical Infectious Diseases, NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
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authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and Hainan Medical College, Haikou, Hainan, China.
authors.forename: Jianping
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2915-2780
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authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Center, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
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keywords: Cryptococcosis; Cryptococcus gattii; Cryptococcus neoformans; clade; genetic diversity; new nomenclature; species complex