%0 Journal Article
%T Cutaneous Granulomas in Dolphins Caused by Novel Uncultivated Paracoccidioides brasiliensis.
%A Vilela R
%A Bossart GD
%A St Leger JA
%A Dalton LM
%A Reif JS
%A Schaefer AM
%A McCarthy PJ
%A Fair PA
%A Mendoza L
%J Emerg Infect Dis
%V 22
%N 12
%D 12 2016
%M 27869614
%F 16.126
%R 10.3201/eid2212.160860
%X Cutaneous granulomas in dolphins were believed to be caused by Lacazia loboi, which also causes a similar disease in humans. This hypothesis was recently challenged by reports that fungal DNA sequences from dolphins grouped this pathogen with Paracoccidioides brasiliensis. We conducted phylogenetic analysis of fungi from 6 bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) with cutaneous granulomas and chains of yeast cells in infected tissues. Kex gene sequences of P. brasiliensis from dolphins showed 100% homology with sequences from cultivated P. brasiliensis, 73% with those of L. loboi, and 93% with those of P. lutzii. Parsimony analysis placed DNA sequences from dolphins within a cluster with human P. brasiliensis strains. This cluster was the sister taxon to P. lutzii and L. loboi. Our molecular data support previous findings and suggest that a novel uncultivated strain of P. brasiliensis restricted to cutaneous lesions in dolphins is probably the cause of lacaziosis/lobomycosis, herein referred to as paracoccidioidomycosis ceti.