Image Credit: Mark Butcher
Cryptococcus is a polyphyletic genus that is present in all five major lineages of the Tremellomycetes (Agaricomycotina). Cryptococcus wieringae (syn=Filobasidium wieringae) was described by Fonseca et al. (2000) to re-classify strains of Cryptoccocus albidus related to Cryptoccocus magnus. Like many other members of Filobasidiales, Cryptococcus wieringae is also found in association with plants. The original identification by Wieringa (1956) was on samples isolated from flax straw when a role in pectin hydrolysis during the dew-retting process of flax was suggested. It has also been isolated from soil samples (Arenz et al. 2006) and glaciers (Branda et al. 2010).
This genome was sequenced as part of the 1000 fungal genomes
project.
References:
- Arenz BE, Held BW, Jurgens JA, Farrell RB & Blanchette RA (2006) Fungal diversity in soils and historic wood from the Ross Sea Region of Antarctica. Soil Biol Biochem 38: 3057–3064.
- Branda, E., Turchetti, B., Diolaiuti, G., Pecci, M., Smiraglia, C. and Buzzini, P. (2010), Yeast and yeast-like diversity in the southernmost glacier of Europe (Calderone Glacier, Apennines, Italy). FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 72: 354–369.
- Fonseca, A.; Scorzetti, G.; Fell, J.W. 2000. Diversity in the yeast Cryptoccocus albidus and related species as revealed by ribosomal DNA sequence analysis. Canadian Journal of Microbiology. 46 (1): 25 (2000)
