“…In a clinical setting, the capsule has multiple functions including a reduction of host immune responses, regulation of phagocytosis by macrophages and providing an antioxidant defence mechanism inside macrophages [see references in (O'Meara and Alspaugh, )]. Although polysaccharide capsules are also important virulence factors in Gram‐negative and Gram‐positive bacterial pathogens [reviewed in (Park et al, )], Tremella mesenterica , a close non‐pathogenic relative of C. neoformans that grows primarily on dead tree branches, also produces a similar polysaccharide capsule (De Baets et al, ), as does Cryptococcus liquefaciaens , a related species commonly found in the high Arctic and hypersaline waters (Araujo, ). The capsule is thought to play an important role in environmental desiccation resistance (Granger et al, ; Park et al, ), which is consistent with the characterization of the ‘typical’ abiotic environment of Cryptococcus identified above.…”