A simple medium was developed, using esculin as the substrate, for the isolation and identification of Cryptococcus neoformans. C. neoformans produced a brown-black pigment on the medium; all other yeasts produced no pigment or were light yellow. Esculin is beta-glucose-6,7-dihydroxycoumarin. C. neoformans produced pigment because the 6,7-dihydroxycoumarin component of the esculin molecule was ...

Microbial lipid production by the oleaginous yeast Cryptococcus sp. was studied using glucose and cellulosic hydrolysate as carbon source, to realize the feasiblility of biodiesel production from high-lipid cell culture. The crude lipid contents of Debaryomyces nepalensis and Cryptococcus sp. cultured in YM Agar reached as high as 32-35 % on dry weight basis, which were higher than those of Pse...

Cryptococcus neoformans is a common cause of opportunistic infection in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and others with cell-mediated immunodeficiency, such as patients with solid-organ-transplant-related immunosuppression, patients receiving corticosteroids or other immunosuppressive therapy, and patients with lymphoid malignancy.1,2 The central nervous system (CNS) is the mos...

Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii are globally distributed human fungal pathogens and the leading causes of fungal meningitis. Recent studies reveal that myo-inositol is an important factor for fungal sexual reproduction. That C. neoformans can utilize myo-inositol as a sole carbon source and the existence of abundant inositol in the human central nervous system suggest that inosi...

Cryptococcosis, caused by an encapsulated fungus, Cryptococcus neoformans, has emerged as a life threatening infection in HIV positive individuals and other immunocompromised hosts. The present review describes laccase and its product melanin as an important virulence factor of Cryptococcus neoformans and illustrates the approaches used in elucidating the pathogenesis of cryptococcosis. Charact...

Cryptococcus neoformans, a basidiomycete yeast and opportunistic pathogen, expends significant biosynthetic effort on construction of a polysaccharide capsule with a radius that may be many times that of the cell. Beyond posing a stimulating challenge in terms of defining biosynthetic pathways, the capsule is required for this yeast to cause fatal disease. This combination has focused the atten...

Cryptococcus neoformans in UDP-Glucose/UDP-Galactose Equilibrium Regulate the UGE2 and UGE1

The pathogenic yeast Cryptococcus neoformans is distinguished by an extensive polysaccharide capsule, which impedes host defences and is absolutely required for fungal virulence. Despite the biological importance of the capsule, nothing is known about how it is assembled. Substantial capsule growth occurs in two distinct situations relevant to cryptococcal pathogenesis: formation of new buds an...

Sexual reproduction in fungi is governed by a specialized genomic region called the mating-type locus (MAT). The human fungal pathogenic and basidiomycetous yeast Cryptococcus neoformans has evolved a bipolar mating system (a, α) in which the MAT locus is unusually large (>100 kb) and encodes >20 genes including homeodomain (HD) and pheromone/receptor (P/R) genes. To understand how this unique ...

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....