We studied 23 clinical and environmental strains of Sporothrix schenckii sensu lato collected from 1984 to 2017 in Argentina. The molecular identification (partial sequencing of a fragment of the calmodulin gene) of the strains was performed. For the yeast and mycelial phases, the in vitro susceptibility testing by a microdilution reference method was determined against eight antifungal drugs. Strains studied were identified as S. schenckii sensu stricto 13 (56.5%), S. brasiliensis 8 (34.7%) and S. globosa 2 (8.7%). The most active antifungal drugs tested for the yeast and mycelial phases expressed as geometric mean (GM) value of the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) (μg mL ) were terbinafine (0.07 and 0.24), posaconazole (0.13 and 0.58), itraconazole (0.38 and 1.10) and ketoconazole (0.22 and 0.89), while fluconazole (110.10 and 131.92) and flucytosine (2.96 and 79.03) were the less active. For voriconazole and amphotericin B the GM-MIC values were acceptably low for the yeast phase (0.39 and 0.72 μg mL ), while the mycelial phase showed values ≥2-fold higher (8.76 and 1.88 μg mL ), P < .05. Here, we described S. schenckii sensu stricto, S. brasiliensis and S. globosa, these species were isolated from humans, animals and soil and are circulating in Argentina since at least 1984.

The aim of this work was to describe the distribution of the members of the Cryptococcus species complex (Cryptococcus neoformans and C. gattii) in hollows of trees from seven parks in Buenos Aires City, to determine the serotypes and genotypes of these environmental isolates and to compare them with the ones reported in the 2001 survey. Four hundred and eighty nine samples were collected by swabbing all trees which had hollows or fissures in the seven parks studied. Each tree was sampled once during the study period and one or more isolates were recovered from each swab. Eight isolates of C. neoformans and 18 isolates of C. gattii were recovered from 15 out of 489 tree samples. C. neoformans was isolated from Tipuana tipu, Eucalyptus spp., and Phoenix sp. All isolates were serotype A and belonged to genotype VNI. C. gattii was isolated from Tipuana tipu, Cedrus deodara, Eucalyptus spp., Acacia visca, Cupresus sempervirens and Ulmus campestrus. All isolates were serotype B and genotype VGI, like both C. gattii strains isolated in 2001. On two occasions, both species were isolated from the same tree sample. These results reinforce and extend our previous findings especially about the presence of C. gattii serotype B, genotype VGI, in Argentina.

M ucormycosis is a debilitating fungal infection; the mortality rate among persons with predisposing factors such as skin trauma (e.g., surgery), diabetes mellitus, or organ transplant is high. The fungus can be directly inoculated into a wound or inhaled (1-3). Rhizopus spp. are the Mucorales fungi that most commonly cause mucormycosis (1,2,4) and are the most common non-Aspergillus cause of invasive filamentous fungal infections (5). However, although Mucorales fungi are ubiquitous in the environment, mucormycosis is relatively uncommon. Rhizopus microsporus has been shown to be a cause of serious infections after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgeries in Argentina (6,7). A recent review of 40 Rhizopus-associated cases of osteomyelitis that developed after these surgeries from 2005 through 2017 in several regions across Argentina identified 3 species-R. microsporus var. rhizopodiformis, R. microsporus var. microsporus, and R. arrhizus [syn. R. oryzae]-and implicated healthcare practices and facility shortcomings in the infections (8). Limited molecular analyses of osteomyelitis-associated R. microsporus infections identified commonalities among isolated strains (7); however, no genomic epidemiologic analyses have been performed on this nosocomial cluster. In this study, we analyzed the genomes of R. microsporus var. rhizopodiformis isolates from patients from multiple facilities in Argentina in the context of unrelated controls from outside the geographic area to empirically establish the relationships among them and determine whether infections may have originated from a common source. Materials and Methods During 2006-2014, we collected 24 R. microsporus isolates from patients at 14 healthcare facilities in 10 provinces in Argentina (8). For unrelated control isolates, used to establish genomic context for the nosocomial cluster in Argentina, we selected 13 isolates from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta, GA, USA), collected from 2003 through 2015 (Table). We extracted DNA from the 37 isolates by using a DNeasy Blood and Tissue Kit (QIAGEN, https:// www.qiagen.com), according to the manufacturer's

One of the most recently described -mediated azole resistance mechanisms is TR46 Y121F T289A. Clinical strains harboring these substitutions have been reported worldwide, with the exception of South America. We describe the first clinical strain with this resistance mechanism isolated from an Argentinian patient. The strain was isolated in 2009 (1 year after the first-described mutant in United States), demonstrating that these alleles were scattered worldwide earlier than previously thought.

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