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 neoformans var. neoformans and other yeast-like fungi of clinical interest in decaying wood inside tree trunk hollows, bark and other plant materials is reported. The var. neoformans was isolated from 3 of 45 (6.6%) wood and one of 390 Eucalyptus bark samples. Two of the positive wood samples came from a tree trunk hollow of Butea monosperma (Family: Papilionaceae) growing in Roshan Ara Garden, Old Delhi whereas the third was from a trunk hollow of Tamarindus indica (Family: Papilionaceae) growing outside of Talkatora Garden, New Delhi. The solitary positive Eucalyptus bark sample originated from Amritsar. The isolations of var. neoformans from decaying wood inside trunk hollows of B. monosperma and T indica constitute the first record of the natural occurrence of this pathogen in association with these trees. The observation reinforces the recent evidence for decaying wood inside trunk hollows of some trees to be a new natural habitat of the variety neoformans. Besides, in consonance with their essentially saprobic character, a number of other yeast-like fungi were sporadically isolated. This includes, Cryptoccus laurentii, Cryptococcus albidus, Candida lusitaniae, C. guilliermondii, C. krusei, C. tropicalis, C. zeylanoides, Trichosporon cutaneum, Rhodotorula mucilaginosa, R. glutinis, Geotrichum capitatum, G. klebahnii and Sporobolomyces salmonicolor. Cryptococcus neoformans var. gattii was not found in any of the 702 samples of plant materials, including the 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.