Published on June 2006 | Mycology

Decayed wood inside hollow trunks of living trees of Tamarindus indica, Syzygium cumini and Mangifera indica as natural habitat of Cryptococcus neoformans and their serotypes in Jabalpur City of Central India

Objective Colonization of Cryptococcus gattii and Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii inside the decaying wood of hollow trunks of Tamarindus indica, Syzygium cumini and Mangifera indica is reported in Jabalpur City in Central India. Methods The decayed wood inside the hollows trunks of 133 trees mostly belonging to the three species T. indica, S. cumini and M. indica was examined. The 108 samples performed during the 1010 days monitoring period were inoculated on Staib's medium. The strains of C. neoformans isolated were identified by morphological, biochemical and serological characters. Results Four out of 36 (11.11%) T. indica trees investigated proved to be positive for C. gattii (serotype B) and three out of 36 (8.33%) T. indica trees were positive for C. neoformans var. grubii (serotype A). Two out of 30 (6.66%) M. indica trees were found to be positive for C. gattii serotype B and one of 30 (3.33%) was positive for C. neoformans var. grubii serotype A. Of 42 S. cumini trees, four (9.52%) were found to be positive for C. gattii serotype B and two (4.76%) for C. neoformans var. grubii serotype A. The two varieties never co-occurred in the same hollow of any of the trees investigated. The data strongly support the colonization of T. indica, M. indica and S. cumini trees by both varieties of C. neoformans. Evidence of this was found by repeated isolations and by the high population density in the decayed wood during the 1010 days monitoring period. M. indica is reported, for the first time, as the natural habitat of both varieties of C. neoformans. For the first time T. indica is also reported to harbor C. gattii serotype B. Conclusion Our results further reinforce recently emerging evidence that the natural habitat of C. gattii and C. neoformans var. grubii is more generalized than specific.