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Cryptococcus gattii , an emerging fungal pathogen of humans and animals, is found on a variety of trees in tropical and temperate regions. The ecological niche and virulence of this yeast remain poorly defined. We used  Arabidopsis thaliana  plants and plant-derived substrates to model  C. gattii  in its natural habitat. Yeast cells readily colonized scratch-wounded plant leaves and formed distinctive extracellular fibrils (40–100 nm diameter ×500–3000 nm length). Extracellular fibrils were observed on live plants and plant-derived substrates by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and by high voltage- EM (HVEM). Only encapsulated yeast cells formed extracellular fibrils as a capsule-deficient  C. gattii  mutant completely lacked fibrils. Cells deficient in environmental sensing only formed disorganized extracellular fibrils as apparent from experiments with a  C. gattii STE12α  mutant.  C. gattii  cells with extracellular fibrils were more virulent in murine model of pulmonary and systemic cryptococcosis than cells lacking fibrils.  C. gattii  cells with extracellular fibrils were also significantly more resistant to killing by human polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN)  in vitro  even though these PMN produced elaborate neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). These observations suggest that extracellular fibril formation could be a structural adaptation of C.  gattii  for cell-to-cell, cell-to-substrate and/or cell-to- phagocyte communications. Such ecological adaptation of  C. gattii  could play roles in enhanced virulence in mammalian hosts at least initially via inhibition of host PMN– mediated killing.

Extracellular Fibrils of Pathogenic Yeast Cryptococcus gattii Are Important for Ecological Niche, Murine Virulence and Human Neutrophil Interactions