Molecular characterisation of clinical Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii isolates from Sichuan province, China.

Previous reports on the molecular characteristics of clinical isolates of Cryptococcus species in China have focused on isolates from southeast China. To obtain a more detailed molecular epidemiology, a total of 92 cryptococcal isolates were collected from Sichuan province. A total of 24 isolates from 12 other provinces were collected for comparative study. Genotypes and mating types of 116 Cryptococcus isolates were determined. Among the 116 isolates, 43 isolates (19 isolates from Sichuan and 24 isolates outside of Sichuan) were analysed by multi-locus sequence typing (MLST). All 116 clinical isolates were mating type α. Most isolates (114/116) were molecular type VNI and the remaining two isolates were VGI and VGII respectively. MLST results revealed five sequence types (STs) of C. neoformans including two novel STs, with most isolates identified as ST5. The two C. gattii isolates identified in our study were ST44 and ST159. Based on our report and previous studies, there are 15 C. neoformans STs in China which can be divided into three subgroups. The C. gattii isolate from Sichuan could be a scattered subtype of VGII (ST44). Our findings demonstrated that C. neoformans isolates in Sichuan are genetically homogeneous, and ST5 is the epidemic clone of C. neoformans in China.