Colón-Reyes, Rodney J.

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    The use of two heterologous hosts for the study of virulence of Cryptococcus neoformans/gattii from Puerto Rico
    (2013) Colón-Reyes, Rodney J.; Ruiz-Acevedo, Alejandro; College of Arts and Sciences - Sciences; Montalvo Rodríguez, Rafael; Rodríguez Minguela, Carlos; Santos Flores, Carlos; Department of Biology; Ramírez, Lillian
    Cryptococcus neoformans (C. neoformans) and Cryptococcus gattii (C. gattii) are encapsulated, pathogenic yeasts, belonging to the Basidiomycota. They infect immune-compromised and immune-competent individuals respectively. The yeasts are usually free living, with the preferred habitats being pigeon droppings for C. neoformans and tree detritus for C. gattii. This work presents the characterization of virulence and stress response of four environmental isolates of the Cryptococcus neoformans/gattii species complex from Puerto Rico. Two experiments were undertaken to determine, directly and indirectly, the virulence of these isolates. The first experiment looked to characterize the interactions between C. neoformans/gattii and amoebae from the genus Acanthamoeba. We observed an increment in capsule size after co-incubation of the organisms, with C. gattii showing the greatest increase in capsule size. We then undertook an experiment by infecting Galleria mellonella larvae with different environmental isolates and the type isolate H99, a C. neoformans var. grubii strain. The resulting data shows that at 37 C the environmental isolates are as virulent as H99 in vivo in a non-mammalian host. To the best of our knowledge this is the first study with environmental isolates from Puerto Rico to do studies into the virulence of said isolates, when compared to clinical isolates.