Ml. Silvavergara et al., ISOLATION OF A PARACOCCIDIOIDES-BRASILIENSIS STRAIN FROM THE SOIL OF A COFFEE PLANTATION IN IBIA, STATE OF MINAS-GERAIS, BRAZIL, MEDICAL MYCOLOGY, 36(1), 1998, pp. 37-42
Paracoccidioides brasiliensis has rarely been isolated from its habita
t in rural areas. In order to investigate the hypothesis that human in
fection with this fungus is linked to coffee plantations (Coffea arabi
ca), material was collected monthly over a period of 1 year from farms
in the town of Ibia, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. A total of 760 sa
mples of soil, coffee leaves and fruits was cultured and inoculated in
to mice. A fungus isolated from the liver of a mouse inoculated with s
oil showed temperature-dependent dimorphism and in vitro mycelium and
yeast phases characteristic of P. brasiliensis. Yeast cells of this fu
ngus caused disseminated infection after intraperitoneal inoculation i
n Wistar rats from which the fungus was re-isolated. An antigen reacti
ng with sera from patients with paracoccidioidomycosis was obtained fr
om this P. brasiliensis strain; antigenic identity with strain 339 and
with four other P. brasiliensis strains was detected by gel immunodif
fusion. However, when the exo-antigen was submitted to SDS-PAGE, we ob
served low gp43 expression in this new strain, which we called Ibia. T
he isolation of P. brasiliensis from the soil at a coffee plantation s
uggests that this is one of its habitats and supports the hypothesis o
f acquisition of paracoccidioidomycosis during agricultural activity i
n these areas.