Decaying wood in tree trunk hollows as a natural substrate for Cryptococcus neoformans and other yeast-like fungi of clinical interest

The occurrence of Cryptococcus neoformansvar. neoformans and other yeast-li ke fungi of clinical interest in decaying wood inside tree trunk hollows, b ark and other plant materials is reported. The var. neoformans was isolated from 3 of 45 (6.6%) wood and one of 390 Eucalyptusbark samples. Two of the positive wood samples came from a tree trunk hollow of Butea monosperma (F amily: Papilionaceae) growing in Roshan Ara Garden, Old Delhi whereas the t hird was from a trunk hollow of Tamarindus indica(Family: Papilionaceae) gr owing outside of Talkatora Garden, New Delhi. The solitary positive Eucalyp tus bark sample originated from Amritsar. The isolations of var. neoformans from decaying wood inside trunk hollows of B. monospermaand T. indica cons titute the first record of the natural occurrence of this pathogen in assoc iation with these trees. The observation reinforces the recent evidence for decaying wood inside trunk hollows of some trees to be a new natural habit at of the variety neoformans. Besides, in consonance with their essentially saprobic character, a number of other yeast-like fungi were sporadically i solated. This includes, Cryptoccus laurentii Cryptococcus albidus Candida l usitaniae C. guilliermondii C. krusei C. tropicalis C. zeylanoides Trichosp oron cutaneum Rhodotorula mucilaginosa R. glutinis Geotrichum capitatum G. klebahnii and Sporobolomyces salmonicolor. Cryptococcus neoformans var. gat tiiwas not found in any of the 702 samples of plant materials, including th e bark and detritus of Eucalyptus camaldulensis and E. tereticornis trees. A more extensive environmental survey, covering divergent climatic regions, is warranted to identify the natural reservoirs of var. gattii in India.